


Somewhere Between the Moon and Six Feet Under

by reyechan



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: And even then it's nothing beyond cute fluff, Everyone shows up eventually, Flowey is suicidal but what else is new, Flowey needs a hug, Flowey's big fat crush, Frisk will happily hug him, Gender-Neutral Frisk, Houseplant Flowey, Hurt/Comfort, Papyrus is a friend to all children, Post-Undertale Pacifist Route, the slowest of slow burns
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-06
Updated: 2018-01-21
Packaged: 2018-09-06 22:06:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 22
Words: 33,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8771137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reyechan/pseuds/reyechan
Summary: Flowey is dragged up to the surface under less than ideal circumstances by a worried Frisk.  Now he has to find a way to move past his short-comings and the many, many things that keep him up at night in order to learn how to function like a normal kid again.
Luckily, his support system is headed by the most determined human ever.





	1. Chapter 1

The Ruins had been quiet for a while now. Ever since the door to the rest of the Underground had opened, ever since the barrier had shattered, the sheltered denizens of the very beginning of the cavern had taken the opportunity to branch out to new horizons. Whether that meant going to the surface or just managing to reach Snowdin, it meant the Ruins was empty.

Save for Flowey, that is.

He wasn't sure how long it had been before Asriel had slipped into unconsciousness and awoken once again as Flowey, but he did know that when he had fallen asleep -- died? could he die again? -- there were still the soft sounds of activity echoing down the halls and now it was silent. Part of him wanted to go and look around for any stragglers, but the rest of him kept firmly planted in his spot. The last thing Flowey wanted was to enter a situation where he might have to talk to someone. An annoying, familiar tightness in his face told him he was close to crying, even though doing so now would be pointless.

Sunlight that had poured in from the opening in the ceiling of the cave soon dimmed, letting Flowey know nighttime was quickly settling in. A wave of exhaustion rushed over him and he drooped forward as a thought that had been fluttering around his subconscious was quickly shoved to the forefront of his brain: 'I should move out of the light come morning and find some place to wilt and die.'

As if on cue, the sound of footsteps coming closer jolted Flowey from this train of thought. He stayed as still as he could in the hopes that he would be passed by.

No such luck.

"Flowey?"

The quiet voice that called out to him, one he'd only heard a handful of times, was instantly recognizable. "What do you want, Frisk?" he asked, trying not to be shocked at the gravelly quality his own voice had gained. Right, he hadn't had anything to drink in a while...

Frisk made their way over, their movements slow as if Flowey were some easily startled wild animal that they wanted to feed. They took a seat beside him at the edge of the patch of golden flowers. Their expression, decidedly neutral as always, made Flowey's face burn with frustration.

"Let me guess, you were expecting Asriel to still be here?" he asked, attempting to add a mocking edge to his tone but only managing a slightly defeated sounding one instead. "Nope, just little old me. I told you, Frisk, I'd be a flower again in no time..."

"I know." Frisk replied, pulling their arms free from the straps of a backpack they had on and dragging it around in front of them. "I figured you wouldn't lie about that."

Their calm in the face of Flowey's taunt just made him angrier. "Then why are you here, huh?" he shot back, turning away from them. "I told you to get lost, Frisk!" However, instead of responding, Frisk continued to fiddle with their backpack as if they hadn't heard him at all. After rifling through the contents, they pulled out a canteen, a pad of paper, and a box of crayons. Flowey glanced back over, eyeing the items warily. "What are you doing?"

Frisk looked down at Flowey again, shrugging. "I just wanted to stay down here with you for a bit." they said, popping open the lid on the crayons. "Things are noisy on the surface right now."

A bitter smile crumpled across Flowey's face. "So you wanna stay here in the silence with the lonely flower? How nice that you have that choice to make."

"Stop that." Frisk frowned, their mouth curving into a pout. "You're just trying to find something to be mad about while pretending you aren't the one keeping yourself here."

Flowey flinched back a bit, eyes wide. He'd finally managed to get a rise out of Frisk, only for it to spectacularly backfire. However, the moment didn't last as Frisk flipped open the pad of paper and spilled the crayons out in front of it. "Come on." Frisk said, offering a red crayon out to him with a small smile, "Let's colour."

The next few hours were spent mostly in silence, yet the quiet was nowhere near as deafening as it had been when Flowey woke up. Though only the occasional noise of paper rustling accented their time spent together, it felt more as though they didn't need to speak instead of neither having any idea what to say. As time passed, however, Flowey felt himself starting to nod off. Through his hazy recollections the following morning, he could only just recall Frisk placing a warm, gentle hand on his sepals and whispering "Good night."

As the morning light shone in, Flowey's eyes opened slowly to realize Frisk had left the paper and crayons for him, as well as the canteen which, upon closer inspection, was filled with water. Flipping though the drawings the two of them had done the night before, Flowey caught himself smiling and quickly pushed the pad of paper away. He knew Frisk was right: he was the one keeping himself here, and if Frisk kept coming down here to escape the hustle and bustle of whatever was going on outside, Flowey knew he would start getting... attached. Admittedly, his inability to let go hadn't lessened despite his admission that maybe putting Chara on such a high pedestal wasn't such a good idea. If he got attached, that would mean he might consider leaving for the surface with them eventually, and he couldn't have that.

Shooting a glare at the canteen, Flowey dove underground only to shoot up in a dark corner of the room a few yards away. It was decided -- he would have to wilt and die before Frisk could hang out with him any more. He would even hide from them if need be. For the sake of everyone's happiness, he would wither away to nothing as he rightfully deserved to.

 

Every couple days, Frisk made sure to find a reason to give to keep returning to the Ruins. They felt bad not giving Toriel the full story, but given how concerned Asriel had been about upsetting his parents, they had decided it was best to take some time to give her any insight as to whom Frisk was paying these frequent visits to. Of course, they had little hope they would ever be able to convince Flowey to come live with them -- he was awfully stubborn, after all -- but if Frisk could at the very least keep him the occasional company, maybe he could be persuaded to at least enjoy the surface with everyone someday.

The first time they had come, Frisk had found Asriel lying beside the patch of golden flowers, unresponsive. Trying not to panic, Frisk had hurried to his side and carefully taking his furry white hands in their's. They were still warm, but Asriel remained unconscious. Seeing him this way had made Frisk think back to the entries in Alphys' lab, the ones about monsters that had 'fallen down'. They were resigned in knowing there was nothing they could do. Asriel himself had said he wouldn't stay like this after all. Lifting Asriel's head slowly, Frisk placed it in their lap and stroked their friend's soft fur, hoping somehow he could sense their presence to let him know he wasn't alone.

The second time had been similar, except instead of Asriel's body, a lone flower stood in it's place. Still unmoving and not at all cogent, but after Frisk's last visit, they had come more emotionally prepared for such a reception. They had spent that visit reading aloud to the unconscious Flowey, occasionally reaching over to stroke one of his soft petals with their thumb.

When Flowey had actually answered them on their third trek into the Ruins, Frisk had to keep their heart from leaping into their throat. They had wanted to be more excited, but he... looked so frail. Even his voice was raspy and weak. Thankfully, Frisk had planned for this and brought water for him, but Flowey didn't seem to take the hint during their time together colouring so Frisk decided to leave it for when he woke up.

Their spirits dropped when they returned for their fourth visit, only to find the canteen in the same exact spot, still full, and Flowey nowhere to be seen.

"Flowey?" they called out, as they had done only days prior. No response. They called again. Nothing.

The panic from before resurfaced. Frisk began to scour the area, trying to find any clue they could to Flowey's whereabouts. They searched high and low, even asking around to some monsters that still remained in other parts of the Underground if they had seen a yellow, talking flower.

After hours of looking, Frisk reluctantly had to return home due to the late hour. However, they made a point to set aside some time tomorrow to track Flowey down.

Tomorrow came and, much to both Flowey and Frisk's dismay, he was found.

A week without water and half of that with no sunlight had taken it's toll on the flower. Frisk had only managed to locate Flowey -- in the basement of Home, no less -- because he no longer had the energy to move hiding places. The colour of his petals were washed out and dull looking and his stem seemed brittle and scrawny. A million questions blew through Frisk's mind at light speed, but they only managed to croak out "Why?" When Flowey didn't answer, they grabbed the canteen and unscrewed the lid, splashing some water onto their hand and kneeling down to reach Flowey. Slowly, they eased his mouth open with their damp fingers, draining some of the water that had pooled in their palm down his throat. Sprinkling some water on the dry dirt around him as well, Frisk took a moment to search around Home for something, anything, to transport Flowey in.

In the end, they decided to regrefully remove some water sausages from their planter and brought the pot over. Flowey blinked up at them blearily, murmuring something incoherent.

Frisk hurried outside Home, scooping some soil at the base of the old tree into the pot before taking it back to the flower, who seemed unable to process what was happening around him. As Frisk began to carefully dig at the dirt around Flowey with their hands, they could have sworn Flowey addressed them as 'Chara' in his vague mumblings. Biting their lip, they carefully lifted Flowey and placed him in the pot, carrying him back upstairs and to the tree to get more soil to pack him in for his journey to the surface. Frisk could only imagine the tongue lashing they would get from him once he was fully aware once more for dragging him to the surface against his will, but they were ready to face that when the time came. For now, Flowey's survival and safety was more important than his self-imposed exile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I started writing this on a whim. I'm not much of a writer, but I have headcanons I wanna throw out into the world, so bear with me here. I promise to make up for my lack of talent with words with cute mental images.


	2. Chapter 2

When Frisk had come home with a potted Flowey in their arms and tears in their eyes, Toriel decided to swallow all the questions that had immediately tried to bubble up out of her mouth. It was obvious the small human was distraught about the state of their friend... were they friends? Admittedly, the only times she had seen Frisk and Flowey interact were not positive experiences in the slightest, but she also knew Frisk had a knack for making good with just about anyone eventually. So, to avoid drowning the child in pressure to explain themselves, Toriel figured it was best to tend to Flowey's poor condition for now.

Thankfully gardening came naturally to her and Flowey was quickly repotted with fresh planting soil and watered. The small flower seemed to only partially register what was going on, occasionally emitting a soft squeak or a tired sigh that made his stem shake when touched.

"He will be alright, Frisk." the matronly boss monster said as she cast a glance down at the worried child beside her. "I have seen plants in much worse condition come back just fine, and golden flowers are notoriously hardy." Frisk rubbed the remnants of tears from their eyes and nodded. Toriel sighed, placing a hand at the back of Frisk's shoulder. "For now, however, you need to get ready for bed."

Looking up at Toriel, Frisk nodded again slowly. "I just wanna stay up a little longer... in case he starts to feel any better and needs to talk." they replied, turning their gaze back to Flowey. Studying their expression for a moment, Toriel released another quiet sigh.

"You may stay up until ten o'clock, but then I want you in bed." she said, kneeling down and placing a kiss in Frisk's mop of messy brown hair. "I will come in then to read you both a story."

The thought made the very beginnings of a smile creep onto Frisk's face. "Okay."

As Toriel exited the room, Frisk reached in towards Flowey's pot, which was perched atop a small stool set beside their bed, and carefully brushed their fingertips against one of his broad yellow petals. Flowey shifted lethargically, his large green eyes opening and scanning the area. He still didn't come off as completely sure of his situation.

"Chara...?" he rasped as he set eyes on Frisk.

They shook their head in response. "I'm Frisk."

"Frisk..." he squeezed his eyes shut again, groaning. "Mmngh, my head... Where... Where am I?"

"Toriel's house, the one on the surface." Frisk explained, gently pressing their thumb to the center of Flowey's forehead and rubbing in slow circular motions. Only when the flower began to ease did they continue speaking. "You were in bad shape and this was the only thing I could think to do for you."

Flowey's eyes fluttered closed again. "Uhuh..." Frisk suspected he was still groggy and more than a little out of it from dehydration, otherwise he would be giving Frisk an absolute earful right about now. Instead, the flower rested his head in Frisk's palm, his ragged breathing slowly starting to even out. It didn't take long before Frisk realized that Flowey was actually asleep rather than simply unconscious. Though it would probably be a while before he was all better, this gave Frisk a little more hope.

Grabbing one of their sweaters from their bureau, Frisk bundled the garment around Flowey like a makeshift blanket, leaving only his head exposed to be propped up by the thick fabric that surrounded it. Frisk didn't know if Flowey actually got chilly, but they did know that being wrapped in something nice and warm always made them feel safe at the very least.

By the time Toriel returned to tell Frisk it was time for bed, they were already snuggled under the covers, snoring softly.

 

The next morning, Flowey was greeted by a brighter light than he had ever experienced before streaming in through the nearby window. Blinking a couple times to adjust his eyes, his gaze flicked around the room curiously. The room he was in was painted a light blue colour and he was situated beside a bed that had what appeared to be a burrito made of blankets curled up on top of it. Only then did he realize he had his own blanket -- wait, was this a sweater? -- draped around him. It was brightly coloured and a little itchy, but very warm. Flowey briefly considered turning away from the sunlight shining in and attempt to sleep more, but the fact that the only reason he would be here is because Frisk kidnapped him and took him to the surface despite knowing him saying he needed to stay underground overrode that impulse.

"F-Frisk!" he cried out, his voice much quieter and weaker than he would have liked. He needed to take charge of this situation and scold them, dang nabbit, and he couldn't do that very well sounding like this. "Frisk, wake up!"

The burrito on the bed wiggled slightly and rolled over. Flowey scowled, only just making out Frisk's sleeping visage through a fold in the covers. The sight of their stupid face, slack-jawed and rosy from the warmth of the comforter, and the sound of their stupid snoring made Flowey's face go beet red in anger. They honestly had some nerve, snatching him up and dragging him here only to sleep soundly afterward. However, their words from before began to echo in his mind: 'You're just trying to find something to be mad about.' He pouted, trying to take a moment and do his best to see things from Frisk's perspective. Obviously, they found him when he was trying to kill himself... They were probably just worried or whatever. It was normal for people to worry about others, and just because it wasn't something he felt anymore didn't mean he wasn't aware that was how it usually went down.

'If Frisk was dying,' he mused to himself, 'the normal thing for me to do would... would be...'

For some reason, he couldn't follow that train of thought further. Suddenly, it became difficult to concentrate on much of anything, his entire body starting to quiver.

"Flowey?" a sleepy voice mumbled out, followed with a yawn. Frisk's face slowly peeked over the edge of the mattress at him, a hand reaching up to rub their eyes. "... Flowey, what-- are you okay?" The worried edge in their tone made Flowey look up to face them, his eyes desperately trying to focus onto their's. Their hand moved in, cupping one side of his face and brushing his cheek with their thumb. The warm skin felt oddly damp against his face until Flowey blinked and felt tears stream down.

"Oh... I-I'm crying..." he managed to choke out, inwardly kicking himself for stating something so obvious. Frisk leaned down, grabbing the pot with both hands and hoisting it onto the bed with them. Flowey opened his mouth again to protest, but his words died on his tongue as Frisk crossed their legs around the pot and placed their hands on his cheeks, planting a light kiss at the base of his two top petals. "What are you doing?" he asked, thankful that at least his crying had stopped.

Frisk shrugged a little, wrapping their arms around Flowey's heavily blanketed stem and nuzzling their nose against his petals. "I figure you're kinda scared right now, and I know that when I'm scared, affection helps." Flowey took a moment to try and process everything. Getting hugged by Frisk... he supposed it did have a calming effect. When they'd hugged him as Asriel, it was-- no, it was ridiculous to compare it to that. After all, he wasn't really Asriel any more, right? Just because he remembered that feeling of warmth and care didn't mean he had the right to think it was meant for him.

However, the internal conflict in his mind soon faded off into a soft buzz as Flowey let himself melt into Frisk's embrace, only the familiar expression returning: 'I don't want to let go.'

Before such thoughts could sink in any further, Frisk slowly pulled back and tilted their head to look Flowey in the eye again. "Come on, it's breakfast time and I think you need it." Without another word, Frisk scooped up the pot and carried Flowey downstairs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So apparently people liked the first chapter? Cool, means I can post more without feeling like a weirdo. Thanks for the support!


	3. Chapter 3

"Would you like some pancakes, Flowey?"

The sound of Toriel's voice addressing him sent an anxious tremour through Flowey's body and he found his words stuck in his throat as he glanced desperately to Frisk, who had just set his pot on the dining room table before taking a seat in a chair beside him. Meeting his eyes, Frisk then looked up to Toriel. "I bet he'd like some." they replied with a grin. Turning back to Flowey, Frisk patted his head. "You should try to eat up, okay? Just don't go too fast."

Flowey's cheeks burned with silent embarrassment. Obviously he shouldn't eat super fast. Frisk didn't need to tell him that like he was some idiot. Despite the flare in his temper, however, Flowey couldn't help but raise his head a little to meet Frisk's hand.

"So, Flowey," Toriel said, serving a couple sizable pancakes onto a plate for him and setting it down, "Frisk told me you are about their age." The flower's attention shifted from the pancakes to Toriel to Frisk in an instant, a look of barely stifled shock plastered on his face. Frisk simply nodded in response. In an attempt to urge conversation out of Flowey, Toriel continued. "Well, once you are feeling better, perhaps you should look into locating your family and enrolling in one of the schools here on the surface? I hear the education system here is wonderful." At the mention of family, Flowey flinched visibly, which Toriel was quick to notice. "... Do you know where your family is, young one?"

Crumpling in on himself, Flowey opted to instead stuff his face with the bite of pancake Frisk had cut off and was holding out for him on the end of a fork. At least his fears of Frisk revealing who he used to be after all were for the time being assuaged, but if he knew Toriel well he also knew she wouldn't let him out of her sight so easily now that she thought he was a lost child. It meant he would be kept on the surface after all, even after he had steeled his nerve and asked Frisk to leave him be. Perhaps, in the end, he underestimated their boundless determination. Or, rather, their even more boundless capability for forgiveness.

"Toriel enrolled me in fourth grade in the elementary school down the street." Frisk explained to Flowey, cutting him another bite of pancake. "I'm starting next week, and it could be fun to go together."

Flowey grunted noncommittally in response, closing his eyes as he chewed. Everything ached, but food seemed to help and it being Toriel's cooking probably helped even more. It had been so long since he'd had mom's cooking... He winced again, shaking his head. He had to stop thinking like Toriel had any significance to him, to Flowey.

Frisk piped up again, feeding the next bite to him. "I think today we'll look around the neighbourhood, if you're up to it?"

Reopening his eyes, Flowey looked up at Frisk again in surprise. Swallowing his food, he asked, "So, what, you're gonna carry me around all day?"

"I figured I would." Frisk responded, raising their eyebrows. "I mean, you probably still aren't feeling up to moving around by yourself, and I don't mind..."

Feeling his face go red again -- though for what reason this time, he wasn't too sure -- Flowey turned his gaze down to the pancakes again. "Do whatever you want, then."

Grinning, Frisk squirmed excitedly in their seat before offering Flowey another bite.

 

The street that Toriel and Frisk lived on seemed to be a fairly new part of town. Many of the houses around theirs were still brand new with For Sale signs posted on their pristine lawns. As it turned out, many monster families who had gone up to the surface right behind them had been relocated to this neighbourhood until they were able to find more permanent housing for them elsewhere, if they so desired. However, many monsters had already started making their own little patches of land feel more like home, with monsters from Snowdin covering their houses in colourful lights, monsters from Waterfall setting out potted water sausages and constructing miniature water gardens on their lawns, and monsters from Hotland trying to go the turfless route.

As they made their way down the sidewalk a bit further into town, Flowey, who was swaddled in another one of Frisk's sweaters, took in as much as he could. Admittedly, his first trek to the surface hadn't lent itself well to taking in any sight-seeing, so he focused on soaking up as much as he could now.

The town -- which Frisk told him was called "Gaskey" -- seemed small and sleepy. There were plenty of trees around and though the sun was up, there was a chill in the fresh-smelling air. "It's autumn, so it's gonna be getting cold out." Frisk said as they noticed Flowey shiver a bit. "If you're not warm enough, I can get you a thicker sweater?"

Flowey shook his head. "I'm fine." he murmured, leaning back against Frisk's shoulder as they walked toward a corner store. Hurrying toward the register, Frisk grabbed a few candy bars and sidled up to the pretty young clerk, holding the snacks out to her.

"Hey, Frisk!" the clerk said as she noticed them, looking down with a cheery smile. "Good to see you again, kiddo." She blinked as she noticed the potted plant in Frisk's arms. "Whatcha got there?"

Turning his head to glance over at the clerk, Flowey scrunched his face up into the grumpiest pout he could muster and hid his face in Frisk's shoulder. The clerk blinked in surprise, running a hand through her bangs. "Oh! A-Another monster. Haven't seen a flower one yet."

Frisk smiled softly, petting Flowey's sepals as he moped. "Don't worry, Kit -- he's just shy and not very used to humans yet. His name is Flowey!"

As she rung up the candy, the clerk, that Flowey could only assume at this point was Kit, waved a hand dismissively. "Aw, well, I hope he feels more social next time then. I guess all this is a pretty big change to the monsters as much as it is for us humans." Bagging Frisk's purchase and taking the coins Frisk dropped on the counter, Kit carefully set the bag in Flowey's pot. "Have a good day, little guy!"

They hustled outside once more and Frisk took a seat by the side of the shop, setting Flowey's pot down between their folded legs before carefully peeling open one of the candy bar's wrappers. "What was all that about?" Flowey asked, glowering up at Frisk. He received a shrug in response.

"Kit's nice. I've known her since coming to this town, so I figured introducing you to her would help you meet some other humans."

Flowey huffed. "I don't want to meet other humans. The last time I came to this stupid town, I, urgh--" he released a frustrated groan, "Asriel got murdered here! By humans!" He felt the corners of his eyes sting. "I don't want to be anywhere near them! I don't want to be here, Frisk!"

For a moment, it was silent. Frisk's eyebrows knitted and they glanced to the side. "I know..." they murmured. "I'm sorry, I just... I didn't want to leave you behind down there. Not to be alone, o-or die, or whatever you were planning on doing."

"Frisk, if this is out of some misplaced guilt over Asriel--"

"Do you remember what happened, when you killed Asgore and we fought? Do you remember what happened afterward?"

Flowey bit his tongue, turning away. Of course he did. After threatening them over and over, claiming he would come back and destroy them, Frisk only spared him, their expression much like the one they wore now. Then, Flowey had assumed this was only pity from a human who considered his threats empty and meaningless, but now he knew a little better. He knew Frisk a little better.

"I realized back then that leaving the Underground the way things were wasn't an option for me anymore." Frisk continued, their voice low so only the two of them could hear. "During my time down there, making friends, I knew I wanted to find some way to get them out, but it was only then that I understood that I had to be the one and that it had to happen now. Being Underground made everyone so miserable, including you." They took in a slow breath. "Before falling into the Underground, I didn't think it was possible for me to do any good for anyone, but at that moment I knew I needed to find a way to help you. To help everyone." Fiddling with the candy bar wrapper, Frisk looked back to Flowey. "Maybe it's a little selfish of me to go against your wish to be left alone, but it hurts knowing that you want to remain in a place you won't be happy in."

"And you think I'll find some way to be happy here?" Flowey asked with a weak smirk.

Frisk's face went slightly pink. "It's worth a try, don't you think? Mr. Completionist?"

A giggle escaped Flowey, which he quickly attempted to muffle in the sweater he was wrapped in but to no avail. Frisk grinned sheepishly, offering out the candy bar to him, which he snagged a bite of.

"I guess." he mumbled between chews, swallowing and leaning his head against Frisk's shoulder again. "If nothing else, it'll be nice to try some new candy." he added, edging towards the candy bar once more after Frisk took a bite.

"That's the spirit!" Frisk cheered, picking up the pot again before heading back toward home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Flowey loving sweets is my lifeblood.


	4. Chapter 4

Everything blurred together.

A sharp booming sound, over and over. Even sharper pains.

Chara is screaming at him.

Do something.  
* Fight  
* Fight  
* Fight

More screaming, inside and out.  
* Fight  
* Fight

But he didn't.

Clutching Chara to his (their?) chest, he chooses to run away. The sharp pains followed.

"Mommy, daddy..."

But nobody came.

 

Jerking momentarily as his eyes opened, Flowey glanced out the window. The sun was just beginning to peek through the trees outside. Seeing the light calmed him somewhat as the shaken flower was reassured that the past was just that, the past. A quick look back to Frisk affirmed that.

Once again, the human had taken to cocooning themselves in blankets, a sight that pried a quiet giggle from Flowey. Over the admittedly short time thus far that he'd been living with Frisk, it seemed that every day presented new reasons why his initial habit of projecting Chara onto them was silly. Chara always slept very serenely. They on more than one instance said they slept like a dead person, which had always managed to get Asriel to chuckle uncomfortably and claim 'serenely' sounded nicer. Then again, Chara always was rather blunt and hardly ever shied away from saying something just because it wasn't polite or even particularly nice. In a way, he'd admired that, as Asriel always had the tendency to walk on eggshells to spare other's feelings.

Frisk was like that too -- they seemed to have a talent for sugar-coating things. Quite literally, in some specific cases: they had almost gotten Flowey to eat carrots a couple nights back, after having asked Toriel to cook them in brown sugar. Of course, they were quick to claim it was because they liked them that way, but Flowey could only assume there was some ulterior motive behind sweetening up his least favourite vegetable.

The opening of the bedroom door jarred Flowey out of his thoughts and he turned his head to see Toriel enter the room. She had a backpack in one hand, which made Flowey remember something. Oh, right, it was Frisk and Flowey's first day of school. He felt his face fall as he hurriedly tried to pretend he was still asleep, but to no avail. Toriel flashed him a warm smile before coming over to gently shake Frisk awake. "Good morning, you two." she said, setting the backpack at the end of the bed as Frisk groggily sat upright. "Breakfast is ready as soon as you are."

As Toriel left, Frisk looked to Flowey and grinned. "Ready for school?"

Flowey frowned, last night's dream not having left him in much of a mood to deal with a bunch of humans. "No." he replied, sulking in his pot.

Hopping out of bed, Frisk went over and picked up Flowey's pot. "Aw, come on. You remember going to school before, right?"

"I guess, but I can only imagine school on the surface being... more crowded." he huffed.

"Mm, well, I guess? I've only ever been home-schooled, so I guess I don't know how many kids will be there." Frisk admitted, "But this town isn't very big, so I doubt there'll be too many people."

"More than enough for me." Sighing softly, Frisk leaned down and planted a kiss on one of Flowey's petals, which caused Flowey to sputter in surprise and whip around to look at them with a wide-eyed stare. "Wh-What was that for?!"

"Just try to see it this way," Frisk said, avoiding Flowey's question entirely, "You like learning new things, and I bet there's a whole lot of things you can learn at school on the surface that you've never heard before."

Flowey's mouth opened and closed rapidly as he fought with how to respond for a moment. "Y-Yeah, I guess." he finally managed, turning away.

Smiling more, Frisk hugged their arms around Flowey's pot tightly before setting him down so they could change out of their pyjamas and get ready for school.

 

It surprised Flowey to see that, despite it not being dark out, it had begun to rain. His only exposure to anything close to rain, Waterfall, was always dark and still. On the surface, however, the rain didn't hamper daily activity. Admittedly, it was only a light drizzle for the time being, but Frisk made mention that the rainy season was upon them and it would probably only get harder as the day went on.

Musing on the concept of weather on the surface managed to get Flowey through the beginning of class more or less fine. Sure, a few kids had gawked in awe of a flower with a face, but since they were in the middle of a lesson, the surprise culminated in only a few stares their way. Frisk and Flowey spent the first part of class being caught up with what little had been learnt so far -- it was only October, after all.

However, when lunchtime came, the trouble started.

A group of about five kids gathered around Frisk's desk as the lunch bell rang. They all seemed excited, interested in how Flowey had a face and spoke while being a flower. Flowey shrunk back from the onslaught of attention as Frisk tried to answer everyone to their satisfaction as quickly as they could, their hands that were around his pot slowly pulling him away from the other kids. A girl with braids made the mistake of reaching out to touch him, which caused Flowey to shriek and begin to tremble violently. Frisk took the collective shock that passed over the children as a means for escape and booked it out the door, Flowey bundled in their arms.

As they slipped into one of the bathrooms, they looked down at their petaled friend, who was positively gushing tears from wide, petrified eyes as he silently gasped and hiccuped. Frisk chewed their bottom lip for a moment before whispering to him, "Flowey, it's okay. You're okay." His 1000-yard stare seemed to gain some clarity at those words and Flowey looked up towards Frisk before hanging his head.

"I screwed up..." he murmured.

"No, it's okay. They didn't know but now they do, and you did well."

Flowey shook his head, his petals flopping into his face. "No, I didn't do well at all! I wasn't ready to deal with so many humans! I'll never be ready!"

"Shhh..." they cooed, slowly reaching a hand toward him. Flowey stiffened for a moment but then, slowly, slumped himself against their hand, the trembling that ran through him lessening with each breath he took and each stroke of Frisk's thumb against the fuzzy fibres on his sepals. This human, one that he had once been able to squash like a bug over and over, now literally held him in the palm of their slightly calloused hand and, somehow, the warmth of them and the sensation itself was comforting.

'What kind of sicko am I...?' he thought, closing his eyes.

For a moment, the two sat in silence until Flowey managed to pick up the muffled sound of the rain outside. "Oh, it's gotten heavier." Frisk said, shooting a grin down at Flowey. "Wanna grab our lunchbox and watch the rain?"

Unable to fight off the creeping drowsiness, Flowey simply nodded in response.

Picking up Flowey's pot again, Frisk made their way back to the classroom and dug out the lunch Toriel had prepared for the two of them from their backpack. Taking a seat on a bench by the side of the school building overlooking the track field, Frisk set Flowey's pot at their side before opening the lunchbox and divvying up the food.

They sat there together watching the rain all lunch period, munching silently on animal crackers, pear slices, and sandwich quarters. Occasionally they would exchange glances, with Frisk smiling to Flowey and Flowey weakly returning the favour.

 

The rest of the day passed without incident. Flowey had even managed to take specific interest in the start of the new science unit and had been following along with the lecture very closely. By the time class ended, everyone was too busy eagerly rushing out the door to express interest in Flowey, so the two were able to slip out easily with the rest of the children. As they walked home, Frisk idly kicked at a few puddles and Flowey even poked his head out from under the protection of the umbrella to feel the rain on his face. It had gotten quite overcast by the time school ended, and now the sky looked like a swirling grey mass.

"I hope it doesn't start thundering later..." Frisk said, fiddling with their umbrella a little as they continued on. Flowey looked back at them curiously and Frisk took it as a request to elaborate. "Uh, well, thunder is just a byproduct of stormy weather? It has something to do with temperature... which causes lightning, and thunder is the sound it makes..." they mumbled, going a bit pink as they fumbled through their attempt at an explanation. "I bet our science book could tell you about it better. I just don't like it cus of the loud noise."

"Loud noise, huh...?" Flowey mused aloud, looking back up to the sky.

 

That night, the thunder came. The first boom came, spooking Flowey and causing him to look up from his science textbook -- the one that he certainly wasn't reading ahead in -- and over at Frisk for reassurance. Frisk seemed anxious which confirmed for him that this was, in fact, thunder.

The next boom sounded and Frisk jumped a little in their seat before scrunching their shoulders up, their neck now completely obscured by the collar of their sweater. The noise set Flowey on edge for a bit too, but he actually had taken the time to read up on thunder in their textbook and knew that lightning always came before it. Looking out the window, Flowey saw a dim light off in the far distance light up a bit of cloud, then waited. A bit later, the thunder came again and Flowey grinned. If he could predict it, it was less scary.

"Frisk, did you know lightning comes before thunder?" he asked, turning to his friend excitedly. "So if you look for the lightning, you won't be as surprised by the thunder!"

Frisk smiled back meekly. "Heh... I guess so. Thanks, Flowey...~" they replied, lying their head on the table by Flowey's pot. "Can you tell me when you see the lightning so I know when to expect thunder?"

Perking up even more, Flowey nodded, looking back out the window. For some reason, though he was hardly a fan of loud noises himself, knowing Frisk was relying on him made him feel a little braver.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really like rainy days, don't you?


	5. Chapter 5

On Fridays, Asgore would pick Frisk and Flowey up from school. The first time it had happened in his presence, Flowey had managed to wait until the king was out of earshot before asking Frisk if this was supposed to happen.

"M- Toriel hates him." he murmured, his face scrunching up a bit as though part of him was trying to reject the words he was saying. "Is she okay with Asgore being around you? After the whole dead children thing..."

Frisk nodded. "She knows I have a job to do. I'm the ambassador, after all, and so I have to work alongside Asgore for the good of monsterkind." They smiled, a mischievous twinkle in their eye. "She doesn't need to know how much slacking off we do together."

Flowey blinked, then smirked deviously. "And here I thought you were a goody-two-shoes, through and through, but here you are -- lying to Toriel, of all people." he teased.

"I like to think of it more as putting her mind at ease..." Frisk replied, going a bit pink in the face. "We get work done eventually, but I know Asgore needs an excuse to take it easy sometimes and I'm happy to be the excuse."

Rolling his eyes, Flowey nestled down in his pot. "Whatever."

 

Eventually, as such outings tended to go, Asgore, Frisk, and Flowey ended up in a gardening supply store. Asgore had been planning out a greenhouse since he first got settled and never ceased to be impressed by the selection of equipment that he was never able to get ahold of in the Underground. Frisk sat in the basket of the shopping cart, Flowey's pot tucked between their crossed legs, as Asgore wheeled them around the store. They eventually came to a halt by the massive selection of seeds on display, which Asgore began to comb through.

"I have not seen a lot of these flowers before." the king rumbled thoughtfully as he picked up a few packets. "I wonder if they come from another country."

The prospect of seeing something new managed to pique Flowey's interest and he rose his head to look over at Asgore. "Let me see!" he squeaked out, to which Asgore happily obliged. Staring at the seed packet, Flowey read the name of the plant aloud. "Pod-a-ly-ree-a... cal-ee-p-tra-taa..." he murmured, "Australian Sweet Pea Bush..."

Flowey felt Frisk lean over him a bit to look at the package of seeds as well and the flower automatically eased back against his friend, glancing up at their face curiously. "Such pretty flowers!" Frisk commented, a smile spreading across their face. "And if they're sweet peas, I bet they smell nice."

"Should we get some, then?" Asgore asked and chuckled as Frisk nodded, still grinning.

"Oh!" Frisk gasped and petted Flowey's top petals excitedly. "We should get some sunflowers too! Those are cool, Flowey, they grow really tall." Flowey silently nodded in response. He had seen pictures of sunflowers before, but admittedly it would be pretty neat to see some in real life. He still wasn't too sure why Frisk was excited -- they seemed to have already seen sunflowers before. Why were they all giddy about the prospect of him seeing them? He didn't understand...

Before he could recede further into his thoughts, Flowey vaguely registered Asgore speaking to him and snapped back to the present. "H-huh?"

"I asked if you had any requests for what to grow in the greenhouse, Flowey." the king repeated with a gentle smile.

"Um," Flowey swallowed, looking back to the wall of seeds and scanning them over, "I-I like honeysuckle." he blurted out, stammering somewhat.

Asgore rose an eyebrow, then nodded. "Honeysuckle, alright. Along with the sweet pea and jasmine, we will have such a sweet smelling garden."

 

Once the three had bought everything they'd picked up, they all headed back Asgore's house. Flowey began to get fidgety as Frisk brought him inside, which caught the human's attention. "Do you wanna look around?" they asked, receiving a nod from Flowey in response. As they headed upstairs, Frisk noticed a familiar sign on one of the doors.

"'Room under renovations'." they read aloud, frowning. "I always wondered what was in those rooms."

Flowey glanced up to Frisk before turning his attention to the door as well. "Try opening it?"

"Are you sure?" Frisk asked, shifting a little on their feet. "What if there's tools and stuff lying around in there?"

"Then we won't go in." Flowey replied, rolling his eyes. "Just a peek, geez."

Reaching out, Frisk grabbed the door knob and twisted it, surprised to find it was unlocked. As they pushed the door inward, Flowey poked his head in and looked around. Frisk took a tentative step inside, only to flinch in surprise when Flowey gasped out loud.

The room itself did look like a work in progress, wallpaper only half put up and a large amount of boxes piled up in one corner. However, the thing that had caught Flowey's attention was a carved wooden chest. "My toy box!" he exclaimed, bobbing forward excitedly which Frisk took as a request to be set down. Doing so, Frisk pushed the lid of the chest open, which made Flowey emit a muffled squeal. He bumped his face against a stuffed animal, snuggling into the plush fur that covered it. "I can't believe he brought all this stuff up..." he murmured, a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. "Frisk, check this out!"

Mouth clamped down on a plastic figure, Flowey pulled it out. Frisk took it carefully, messing with the joints. "Chara told me it's a 'Transformer'! We found it in the dump with it's arm kinda messed up, but we took it to Gerson and he got it working right. Oh, oh, and speaking of stuff found at the dump!" He nudged at a rainbow-gradient plastic Slinky. "I found this before Chara came to the underground! I used to race up and down the basement stairs with this thing, only I tripped one time and ended up face down on the basement floor. Heh, mom was so upset and I wasn't allowed to do that for a while afterward."

Frisk giggled a bit, pulling out the stuffed animal. It wasn't any actual animal they could think of, but they recognized it somehow anyway. "Did you find this at the dump too?"

Flowey shook his head. "No, that was made for me. Dad always used to tell me how excited everyone was when I was born, and I got a whole bunch of presents from everyone in the Underground. This was one of em, and I think it's the only one that lasted, which is pretty amazing seeing as how I was always chewing on it's legs." Wrapping his stem around the stuffed animal, Flowey cuddled it close.

A few moments seemed to pass before Frisk heard someone behind them clear their throat. Looking over their shoulder, Frisk jumped a bit as they saw Asgore standing in the doorway with a few teacups on a tray. "I was wondering where you two went off to." he said, entering the room. Flowey blanched and quickly unwound himself from the stuffed animal, lightly knocking it over for good measure. How much had the king heard?

"Sorry about making a mess." Frisk said, hurriedly putting the toys back in the chest, but Asgore rose a large furry hand, chuckling.

"It's alright." he replied, leaning down to scoop Frisk up once Flowey was safely back in their arms. "But there are no chairs in here, so it isn't the best place to take tea. Let's go downstairs for now."

 

That evening, Asgore took Frisk and Flowey back to Toriel's house. Flowey, who was already starting to get drowsy by the time they ate supper, was dozing by the time they came through the front door. Frisk smiled to Asgore and whispered a thank you to him for the fun day. The king nodded, then dug a hand into his coat pocket, pulling out the stuffed animal and tucking it into Flowey's pot. As Flowey sleepily draped himself over it, Frisk looked up to Asgore in surprise.

"I think it will help him sleep better." he answered quietly. "Something warm and familiar always helps."

Frisk's eyes widened, but before they could ask him anything, Asgore had waved his goodbye and was on his way back home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's not a holiday upload without a kid getting a toy from Boss Monster Santa. It just isn't.


	6. Chapter 6

As the days went on, Asgore came to visit Toriel's house more and more often. It was obvious to everyone that Toriel's opinion of Asgore was contentious at best, but both of them did their best to keep these visits civil for the sake of the two young children present.

One day, Asgore came by with a large rectangular crate that he swiftly began setting up in Frisk and Flowey's room, which piqued their curiosity.

"It is a," Toriel paused, quickly covering her muzzle with a clawed hand to hide the smile creeping onto her face, "A 'flowerbed'." A muffled snort could be heard from Asgore as Frisk giggled and Flowey let out an exaggerated moan of exasperation.

"She is right, you know." Asgore replied, his smile from the admittedly cheesy pun still present. "Rather than staying in a pot all the time, Flowey could have a bit more leg- er, root room this way."

Frisk bounced cheerfully on their heels. "How cool! Now you have a bed, Flowey." they said, looking down at their petaled friend in their arms. Flowey looked back up at Frisk for a moment before nodding, quietly mumbling an 'mmhm' in response. This surprised Frisk -- sure, he had yet to complain about the pot itself, but Flowey had occasionally alluded to a feeling of claustrophobia. They thought this would be a bit more exciting for him. Excusing the two of them for a moment, Frisk carried Flowey downstairs and into the kitchen. "Are you okay?" Frisk asked, setting Flowey's pot on the counter before climbing up onto the chair beside it.

Flowey shifted for a moment, gaze lowering. "I just... don't know when this will all backfire." he murmured. "Toriel taking me in, the king giving me a bed..." He seemed to want to continue that sentence, but stopped himself. "I don't deserve or know how to handle any of this, and I'm waiting for something bad to happen." Flowey continued instead. Frisk frowned, stroking one of his petals. After a few moments of silence passed, they picked up Flowey's pot again, hugging him close with a small smile.

"How about we walk to the store and find some stuff for your side of the room?" Frisk offered. "I actually think I remember finding something one time that you would really like."

Surprise replaced some of the gloom pervading his features, Flowey nodded again. "Okay!"

 

Turns out, Frisk had been correct in their hunch. After Frisk explained to Flowey how they worked, the two hurried home to ask Asgore, who had finished putting the flowerbed together and was having an oddly pleasant cup of tea with Toriel, to put them up.

A few minutes later, a small galaxy of glow-in-the-dark stars of varying colours had been stuck to the wall above Flowey's bed. Frisk made sure to part the curtains so some sunlight could shine on them. "You should thank Asgore." Frisk quietly urged Flowey, who glanced up toward Asgore's face hesitantly.

"..." Flowey looked back down, shifting uncomfortably. "Thanks."

"You're welcome." Asgore replied with a nod. "Are you and Frisk going to come back downstairs for some tea?"

Flowey fidgeted more. "Suuuure..."

Frisk chuckled, carrying Flowey back downstairs as they trailed after Asgore. "Would you drinking golden flower tea be like cannibalism?" they asked Flowey playfully. Flowey puffed out his cheeks and straightened up.

"I have to assert my dominance as alpha flower." he replied, shooting Frisk a sly smile. Snorting suddenly, Frisk giggled wildly, which only made Flowey perk up more, his grin widening.

As Frisk took a seat and set Flowey down on the table, Toriel set two cups beside them -- Flowey's including a straw. "Be careful, the tea is still a bit hot." she warned, a bit too late as Flowey had already gone for his straw and taken a sip. He froze as he got a mouthful of the searing liquid, his eyes tearing up a bit, but quickly swallowed it down. Frisk watched him in awe.

"Are you okay?" they asked.

"O-Of course." he stammered, trying to pull a brave face but unable to hide his relief when Frisk fetched him an ice cube to suck on.

 

After a bit, the two finally were able to drink the tea and did so slowly. The children seemed to be more interested in the fact that Asgore and Toriel were having a conversation, and a nice one at that. Flowey in particular seemed pleasantly surprised, an almost hopeful expression dawning on his face. By the time Asgore had to leave for his own house, Toriel even waved goodbye to him with a small smile.

Later that night, after getting Flowey settled into his new bed -- complete with a new quilt to snuggle up in -- he sleepily called over to Frisk as they were getting into their pyjamas.

"Frisk, do you think... do you think mom and dad will be good friends again...?" he asked shyly, hiding the bottom half of his face in the blanket. "That they'll ever be together again?"

Frisk thought for a moment. The occasional slips of Flowey calling Toriel and Asgore 'mom' and 'dad' hadn't alluded them, but they weren't sure it was good to ask about now. They only wondered if it might be difficult for Flowey to keep his identity a secret if these slips kept happening. It was likely Asgore had figured it out, at least partially, and Frisk knew that if he and Toriel got back on friendly terms it would only be a matter of time before she found out too, whether through Asgore telling her or Flowey revealing himself by accident. Sure, Frisk didn't exactly like having to keep secrets, but this wasn't their secret to tell. As far as Toriel and Asgore knew, Frisk wasn't even aware of Asriel's existence beyond knowing the two had a child once.

Leaning over, Frisk placed a quick kiss on one of Flowey's petals. "Maybe, we'll just have to wait and see. But they sure seemed to get along today, huh?"

"Uhuh." Flowey agreed, yawning. "G'night, Frisk..." he murmured, his petals closing over his face.

Frisk smiled. Flowey had been doing better and better over the days he'd been on the surface, so they were certain eventually he would reveal himself on his own once given enough time and support. It was all a matter of when at this point...

Yawning as well, Frisk crawled into their own bed and took one last look at their friend before turning off their bedside light. "Goodnight, Flowey."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really like this edit by devichonee, which more or less inspired this chapter. ( http://devichonee.tumblr.com/post/153711857865 )


	7. Chapter 7

It was everywhere. Dust.

Flowey?

He didn't want to dust him. He didn't.

Flowey?

He just wanted to see what would happen...

"Flowey?!"

Waking with a jolt, Flowey took a moment to register Frisk's hands cradling his head, and another moment still to see them sitting by the side of his bed. Soon, he picked up the sounds of his own ragged breathing and the lack of sunlight coming through the window. What time was it?

"You were thrashing around really badly." Frisk said, eyebrows furrowing together with worry. "Are you okay?"

Flowey stared up at Frisk, trying to parse an answer from his brain. He hazily remembered what it was he was dreaming about, but it was superceded by his pounding head and his constant shaking and Frisk's warm hands being the only thing keeping him from collapsing completely. His mouth moved in some attempt to respond, but no words came forth.

Chewing on their bottom lip, Frisk thought for a moment. "Did you have a scary dream? Just nod or shake your head to answer." they instructed. Feeling a little relieved, Flowey nodded. "Do you think you can get back to sleep?" He shook his head, blinking as his cheeks squished against Frisk's palms as he did and rested his head to one side, taking note that Frisk's hands were even warmer on his face rather than just his petals. It was something oddly nice to focus on as the buzz of activity in his mind slowed down a little.

"Do you wanna see something cool?" Frisk asked, grinning. Flowey's tired eyes widened and he nodded again.

Wrapping Flowey's blanket around his stem to keep him steady, Frisk hurried to their closet and grabbed their coat and boots, pulling them on over their pyjamas. Coming back over, they knelt down beside the flowerbed and looked down at Flowey. "I'm gonna need to take you out of your bed, is that okay?" they asked him.

"Y-Yeah..." Flowey managed to say, nodding. Nodding in return, Frisk reached down, wiggling their fingers down into the potting soil to locate Flowey's roots. They slipped their hand under the root's extent and, their other hand braced against Flowey's swaddled stem, lifted him up. Frisk quickly wrapped the excess of Flowey's blanket around the rest of his body and bundled him into their arms, giving him a gentle hug as they did. "So, what's this cool thing...?" Flowey asked, resting back against Frisk's chest. "It better not be another dumb human friend of yours."

Giggling, Frisk shook their head. "No, this is something I'm sure you'll like." they replied, carrying him downstairs and out the front door.

The two followed the sidewalk out of the town proper, away from the glare of the streetlamps and into a small clearing. Frisk kicked at the ground, making a soft spot in the dirt at their feet before carefully planting Flowey there, adjusting his blanket so it remained wrapped around his stem. Flowey tilted his head curiously. "Is this some kind of park or something?" he asked.

"Look up." Frisk said, lying back in the grass beside him.

Doing so, Flowey felt the breath drain from him. The velvety black night sky was scattered with stars, twinkling and sparkling and shining so much more beautifully than he'd ever imagined.

"You kept falling asleep so early in the evening," Frisk murmured softly, "I was worried you wouldn't be able to stay up long enough to see the stars."

Flowey shuddered, his eyes welling with tears. "Thank you..." he whispered, barely noticing his voice slipping into Asriel's register as his eyes remained locked on the sky above them, "... S-So much..."

They nodded, smiling a little. "Of course. Ah," Frisk paused as they saw the beginnings of sunlight starting to peek out over the tree tops, "We should get back home soon."

Coming back to the moment, Flowey looked back to Frisk, blinking away his tears. "Okay." he replied, loosening his roots and reaching them up to meet Frisk's hand as they leaned in to pick him up, a few curling around the human's small fingers. Frisk beamed down at him, something that caught him off guard a little bit. "What are you grinning about?" he asked, feeling his face heat up.

"Just happy you got to see the stars." they replied.

Flowey pouted in silence. They shouldn't be so cheery about all this. He woke them up super early in the morning with his little... episode. That Frisk was acting like this wasn't a big deal was just stupid. It was just like his first day of school all over again; why didn't Frisk seem to care when he only caused them trouble? Chara would always get frustrated with him when he-- no... Flowey shook his head quickly. He needed to stop comparing Frisk to Chara. They were never alike to begin with.

 

After returning home, it wasn't long until Toriel came in to wake them up, surprised to see Frisk was already up and about and Flowey was already put in his pot for the day. Breakfast was uneventful until Toriel asked Frisk offhand if they had any plans for the day.

"I wanna go to the next town over." they replied.

"Oh?" Toriel blinked in surprise. "What ever for?"

Pausing, Frisk kicked their legs idly. "I wanna talk to someone," they mumbled into their cereal, "Someone I knew before I went to the Underground. I wanna see if she can help me with something."

Toriel rose an eyebrow. "Is it something you do not want to tell me?"

"Mmhm..."

She sighed. "I see. I suppose I am not surprised -- you are a very independent child." Toriel admitted. "I hope you will at least allow me to accompany you."

Shifting in their seat, Frisk nodded after a moment. Flowey looked to Frisk curiously over his own breakfast. If Frisk was being this cagey, he got the feeling this would be something involving him in some way and thus didn't want to ask in front of Toriel what they were planning, but that didn't stop his mind from racing with possibilities. Obviously, he would have to meet some other human, which wasn't good, but maybe... maybe it was something good in the end? The attempt at positive thinking was strained at best, but Flowey tried to focus on it for now.

In a couple hours time, the three of them had loaded into a taxi -- they had to request a bigger vehicle to accommodate Toriel's stature, much to her mild embarrassment -- and were on the road. Flowey stared out the window, eager to see what all laid beyond the confines of Gaskey. His answer was, well, even more trees. And some snow! He considered asking Frisk if they were going to Snowdin as a joke, but felt his words die on his tongue as he glanced Toriel. It felt odd talking around her, being around her... would it ever get better?

Once getting into the next town over, which appeared to be much bigger than Gaskey, Frisk handed the driver an address. After a bit longer, they stopped outside a rather modest office building. Upon setting foot inside, a receptionist looked up, blinking a couple times in surprise before bolting upright.

"Oh my gosh! You're the kid who freed all the monsters, right?" she asked excitedly. "Miss Beaumont was telling me she recognized you!" A child seated by a small play area in the corner of the room looked over from his puzzle and eyed Toriel for a moment before waving at Frisk.

"Hi, Caden." Frisk said, waving to him as well before looking back to the receptionist. "And yeah, that's me. I was actually wondering if Miss Beaumont had any time free today."

The receptionist nodded. "You're in luck, she just got off lunch and is free until about three. I'll let her know you're here."

Toriel took a tentative seat on one of the overstuffed chairs in the waiting area. "Frisk, I must admit I am curious as to what we are doing here." she said softly, glancing at the generic looking images of landscapes and old country cottages that scattered the walls.

Frisk remained quiet, instead going over to the play area where the other child sat, Flowey in tow, and took a seat beside him. "Long time no see, huh?" they asked the little boy, who grunted softly and made a few gestures with his hands. "Yeah, really busy."

Flowey watched in awe. "Frisk, what is he doing?" he asked, causing the boy to look at him with unblinking grey eyes.

"Oh, Caden talks with his hands." Frisk told him. "Miss Beaumont told me that some kids can't hear and use a language with their hands to communicate, but Caden just uses it cus he doesn't like using his voice." Caden scrunched his nose up a bit and returned to his puzzle.

It wasn't long until the door to the back room opened, revealing a woman with wavy blonde hair and a dimpled smile. "Hello, Frisk." she said, her eyes resting on them for a moment before moving to Flowey in their arms and then Toriel in a nearby chair. "Oh my, you brought new friends?"

"Toriel is my new mom." Frisk replied. "And Flowey is my best friend."

The woman gasped softly. "I heard about... ah well, I am glad everything has turned up better in the end." She extended a hand to Toriel. "Forgive me, I'm Dr. Bianca Beaumont, or just Miss Beaumont. I'm a child psychologist and worked with Frisk for, oh, a good three years now?"

Frisk grinned and nodded in confirmation, and Toriel shook Miss Beaumont's hand with a warm smile. "I see, so you help children?" she asked. "I am hoping to go into teaching, so I suppose it is fortuitous we meet."

"Very." Miss Beaumont beamed, then looked back to Frisk. "So, Frisk, what brings you here today, hm?"

Frisk held up Flowey a bit more, who immediately stiffened. "I was hoping you could talk to Flowey. He's been having some troubles, and I wanna see if you can do something to help him."

"I will certainly do my best." the doctor replied. "Bring him into my office, would you?"

Nodding again, Frisk stood. Flowey looked back to them. "Frisk, do you think this will really work?" he asked, feeling himself begin to shake again.

"If you give it a chance, I think so." Frisk whispered to him. "It will be fine; Miss Beaumont will just ask you a few questions, and if you feel uncomfortable with a question you can say you don't wanna answer, but I doubt it'll get that far. She won't tell mom about anything you say and she's generally pretty easy to talk to, even when first meeting her. It'll be okay, just take a deep breath..."

Flowey inhaled slowly, trying to ease his nerves as they entered the doctor's office. From all he'd known about these professional types of places, he'd never expected the room they entered to be as covered in crayon drawings as it was. Then again, Miss Beaumont did say she worked primarily with children. Frisk even managed to spot one they did and pointed it out to Flowey. He looked it over for a moment, perplexed at how much more colourful Frisk's drawings were now than they were then.

Setting his pot down on the table, Frisk knelt down to look Flowey in the eye. "Do you want me to stay or are you good?" they asked him, then looked to Miss Beaumont for clarification.

The doctor nodded. "If you need Frisk to stay nearby this time, it will be alright." she said.

Flowey shifted in his pot. "Please stay..." he murmured, and Frisk took a seat at the chair behind him.

 

Though the start of the session was awkward, Flowey found himself eventually easing up enough to discuss his ordeal with Miss Beaumont, who seemed to be listening quite intently. "It's awful you had to go through all of this, especially at such a young age." she said, eyes downcast. "But you're still here, and that's what matters. Now it's just a matter of helping you move past all that has happened, which is where I come in."

"Do you think there's something you can do about it?" Frisk asked, speaking up for the first time since the session began.

Miss Beaumont tapped her chin, then smiled. "It's a bit early to tell for sure, but I think there is a decent chance what I have in mind will work."

Flowey cocked his head at that. He'd have to come here again? He said all he had to say...

"I will need to talk to your parental guardian about how to move forward, however." the doctor continued, which caused Flowey to recoil in shock.

"No! You can't tell her this stuff!" he shouted, eyes widening. "She-She can't..."

However, Miss Beaumont held up a hand. "No need to worry about that." she said. "Everything you say in here stays between us, I promise. This is more in regards to further visits and medicine, if it comes to that."

That seemed to put Flowey slightly more at peace with all this, but the worried look on his face still remained. Soon enough, the three returned to the waiting room, where they saw Caden sitting in the chair next to Toriel's, frantically finger-spelling to her with the boss monster doing her best to keep up with his hands. After he was done, Toriel looked over to them and smiled.

"Your son is very sweet." she told Miss Beaumont, "He was teaching me his hand language. The, erm, 'finger spelling'." Toriel did her best to fumble the last two words out with her hands, prompting a thumbs up from Caden before the boy ran to the doctor's side and tugged on her skirt. He spelled out a word and then tucked this thumb between his index and middle finger, placing his hand on top of his head.

"'Mom-ster Toriel?'" Miss Beaumont read out, chuckling. She looked back to Toriel. "Thank you for keeping him company."

Toriel waved a hand dismissively. "It was nothing at all. Ah, but," she paused to think, "Should we discuss how to move forward with... this?"

"Certainly." Miss Beaumont nodded, leading Toriel to the side while the children reconvened for the time being.

 

"Flowey?"

He was surprised when Toriel addressed him directly, especially as Frisk had left the room for a brief moment to use the bathroom. Glancing around anxiously, Flowey finally responded. "Yeah...?"

"Miss Beaumont told me that you show signs of serious emotional trauma." she said, looking down into her lap sadly. "I want you to know that you are free to speak with me if anything is bothering you at any time, alright? If you need to get anything off your chest, all you need to do is ask."

Flowey felt a lump form in his throat. "Okay..." he mumbled, turning away.

 

The rest of the evening was quiet. As Frisk brought Flowey up to bed, he glanced up at them.

"That doctor, Miss Beaumont," he murmured, "She said something about medicine. But I'm missing my soul, and that's the real problem right?" He crumpled in on himself. "How would medicine fix that?"

Frisk shrugged. "Who knows, but it's worth a try, isn't it?"

He grumbled, curling up. "I guess."

Smiling, Frisk leaned down and kissed his cheek. "I'm proud of you for putting yourself out there today." they said. "I know it must have been hard to open up to a complete stranger like that, but you did it."

Flowey closed his petals up quickly as he felt heat rush to his face again. "It's not that bigga deal, idiot..."

Frisk just chuckled and carried him into the bedroom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was glad to get to reuse some old OCs for this chapter.
> 
> Also, Flowey stargazing is great. Let him see the stars. <3


	8. Chapter 8

"What's this?"

Flowey nudged the cover of the small notebook back to stare at the blank pages before shooting a curious glance back to Miss Beaumont, who was smiling her normal, pleasant smile. They had just finished up their first session without Frisk sitting in which had gone fairly well -- a lot of the questions seemed mundane to Flowey, was this really supposed to help? -- and then she had given him this little book.

"Well," she began, "Frisk told me you like to colour, so I figured you might be interested in this." Pulling out a box of crayons, Miss Beaumont set them beside the notebook. "I would like you to keep an art journal. Draw whatever comes to mind whenever you feel like it. Then, next time you come in, you can show me everything you drew. Sound good?"

He looked down at the notepad again. "I guess." It didn't sound too bad, and he did like colouring. He wasn't sure what this was supposed to accomplish, though...

A knock at the door brought Flowey out of his thoughts. "Come in." Miss Beaumont said, and Frisk poked their head inside. "Hello, Frisk!"

"Hi, Miss Beaumont." Frisk said, looking to Flowey with a big grin that made him somewhat suspicious. "Ready to go?"

The doctor nodded. "We just finished."

Frisk hurried in, picking up Flowey's pot. "Don't forget my stuff!" he piped up, looking back down at the notebook and crayons. "Miss Beaumont wants me to draw in it." Frisk rose their eyebrows in surprise and picked up the articles, glancing to Miss Beaumont again who smiled back.

"Have a nice day, you two." she said, ushering the children back toward the waiting room where a gangling skeleton in a very obnoxiously coloured tee and a pair of track shorts was busy helping Caden solve a sudoku puzzle... rather unsuccessfully. Flowey seemed taken aback by his presence for a moment.

"H-Howdy, Papyrus..." he murmured, which caught the skeleton's attention.

"HELLO FLOWEY! IT'S WONDERFUL TO SEE YOU AGAIN!" he replied, bolting out of his seat and hurrying to Frisk's side. "I'VE BEEN WANTING TO COME VISIT SINCE FRISK BROUGHT YOU UP FROM THE UNDERGROUND, BUT THEY INSISTED YOU HAVEN'T BEEN IN THE MOOD FOR MUCH COMPANY. NEVERTHELESS, I AM HERE TODAY TO STAND IN FOR LADY TORIEL AS FRISK'S GUARDIAN, AS SHE HAD TO LEAVE TO ATTEND TO... TEACHERLY BUSINESS."

Frisk muffled a giggle behind their hand. "She started her credential program." they clarified.

"YES, THAT." Papyrus huffed. " ANYWAY, AS I'M FRISK'S GUARDIAN FOR THE DAY (AT LEAST UNTIL FIVE O'CLOCK), I AM ALSO DE FACTO YOUR GUARDIAN AS WELL, SO I WILL BE DECIDING WHERE WE GO FROM HERE." He leaned down to Frisk. "WHERE ARE WE GOING FROM HERE?"

"Ice cream." they reminded him quietly.

"WE ARE GOING TO GO TO THE ICE CREAM SHOP TO CONGRATULATE FLOWEY ON A SUCCESSFUL TRIP TO THE DOCTOR'S." Papyrus exclaimed not at all quietly as he steered Frisk, and by extension Flowey, out the door.

Flowey seemed without words for what was happening, opting to blankly stare ahead with wide, unblinking eyes and his mouth clamped tightly shut. Looking down at him, Frisk gently nudged his stem. "You okay?" they asked.

He nodded. "Was this your idea?" Flowey asked Frisk weakly.

"Uhuh." they replied. "Would you rather not?"

"It's not that..." Flowey shifted in place, looking down again. "It's just the last time I even saw Papyrus was before... the barrier broke." He let out a sigh, his petals curling inward somewhat. "It's... awkward."

Frisk reached a finger in and brushed it against Flowey's stem. "Well, if it helps any, Papyrus isn't in the habit of holding anything against anyone. You know that."

"Yeah." Flowey replied, a hollow chuckle escaping him. "I know." That dream from a few nights back still seemed too fresh a wound to discuss, but Flowey also knew Frisk was aware that he'd done plenty of bad things, even to a monster as nice as Papyrus.

"So let's go enjoy some ice cream." they urged with a smile, one that managed to perk up the corners of Flowey's mouth as well.

 

Papyrus had, apparently, become quite the busy bee as of recent. As self-appointed mascot of the monster race, he had been going around meeting and carrying on as detailed a conversation as he could with ever human he came across in order to make a good impression. He has also, unsurprisingly, ammassed a gargantuan following in school-aged children, who thought the walking, talking skeleton who dressed like a superhero and exuded boundless excited energy was the coolest thing since sliced bread.

Frisk couldn't help but grin as they noticed Flowey was far from an exception to this rule. Through their time traversing the Underground, they hadn't gotten much chance at all to see Flowey interact with anyone -- save for stalking them, that is -- but had been told on a few occasions in so many words that Papyrus was quite familiar with him. Watching Flowey relay all that had been going on with a juvenile enthusiasm Frisk had seen only in short bursts thus far to an enthralled Papyrus managed to put a few more pieces into place.

"It's not surprising Papyrus started up a Flowey fan club in a few timelines," Frisk commented at one point when Papyrus had gone off to fetch more ice cream from the counter, "What with that dazzling smile you have on."

Flowey felt his face heat up instantly. "Sh-Shush." he muttered. "Papyrus is just easy to talk to, is all..."

"Even for you?" they asked him, propping their chin in their hand.

"......" Flowey pouted a bit. "Papyrus was the first monster I talked to, besides mom and dad, after... becoming a flower." He lowered his head. "I was still so scared and confused, but he was patient with me and made all the changes in the Underground a little less frightening..."

Frisk offered a warm smile. "Yeah, I guess I know the feeling. After being told there would be monsters after my soul, meeting Papyrus was a big load off of my mind. I guess he just has that effect on people."

Flowey giggled a bit, nodding, then stopped short. "Did I really rattle you back then?" he asked, looking back up at Frisk. "When you were leaving the Ruins?"

"Hm? Ah," Frisk looked thoughtful for a moment, "I was definitely... confused and worried."

"Hah, well," Flowey puffed up proudly, "I am pretty intimidating."

The human smiled again. "I had no idea why you were angry with me, and I didn't know how to make it better." they continued. "I had made friends with every other monster in the Ruins, except you. I spent a lot of time afterward wondering about it."

Instantly, Flowey's face fell. "You mean to say that you were already trying to figure out how to befriend me back then?" he asked with a frown. "You really are weird, Frisk."

"I like to think Papyrus and I have that in common." Frisk replied, sticking their tongue out. "Weird but friendly. And we're both friends of yours, so I guess you have a type."

"Don't say it like that!"

"I'M BACK!" Papyrus announced, placing a sundae on the table. "WHAT WERE YOU TWO CHATTERING ON ABOUT?"

Frisk glanced up to Papyrus with a grin. "How much Flowey appreciates that we're all friends!"

"I never said that!!" Flowey shouted, his face much resembling a tomato with eyes and a mouth at this point.

"AWW, WELL, I APPRECIATE THAT WE'RE ALL FRIENDS AS WELL." Papyrus responded before taking a seat once more. "SPEAKING OF WHICH, I WANTED TO RUN SOMETHING BY YOU, FRISK -- I WAS CONSIDERING STARTING A FLOWEY FAN CLUB..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Behind Flowey and Asgore, Papyrus is my next favourite character. He's so pure.


	9. Chapter 9

According to Frisk, October was the start of changing seasons from warm to cold weather. That meant that all the leaves on the trees were turning orange and red, the nights came sooner, and everyone at school was sniffling and sneezing and coughing and being generally germy and nasty.

The last part Flowey hardly thought much of, that is until Frisk woke up one morning with a cough and a stuffed up nose.

"H-Hey, Frisk," he piped up as Frisk groggily dressed for the day, trying desperately to keep a snide smile on his face, "Ya, uh, you look half dead, what gives?"

They coughed roughly, then sighed. "I must'a picked up the bug goin' 'round..." Frisk replied, rubbing their nose on their sleeve. "Ugh, I feel gross..."

Flowey watched Frisk go about their morning routine without another word, trying to inwardly focus the sudden spike of anxiety he felt. After all, the scant number of humans he cared about thus far didn't have a good track record of surviving illness. Sure, Frisk hadn't been eating poisonous flowers as far as he knew, but that didn't stop the vivid memories of watching Chara die from filling his mind.

As Frisk carried Flowey down the stairs for breakfast, coughing all the way, Flowey became acutely aware that Toriel had stopped whatever she was doing in the kitchen. Once they entered, he knew from the look on her face that she was feeling at least of modicum of the same panic that he was.

"Frisk, are you feeling alright?" Toriel asked, placing a furred hand on Frisk's forehead. "You are rather warm and have been coughing a lot..."

"I think I have a cold." Frisk mumbled as they tried to breathe in through their nose and only succeeded in emitting a disgusting bubbling, gargling sound that made both Flowey and Toriel cringe.

"S-So you do." the matronly monster responded weakly. "Well, march right back up to bed and I will call the school and bring you breakfast and... medicine." The last word that escaped her seemed to bring about the realization that Toriel had yet to buy any human medicine. "I will go buy some. But to bed with you." she said, urging Frisk back up the stairs with a glance to Flowey. "Will you be staying here as well, Flowey?" she asked.

Flowey nodded quickly, not to sure of his ability to speak confidently at the moment.

Toriel returned the gesture. "Alright, be sure Frisk gets up to bed and stays there, I will bring your breakfast up too, as well as let the school know you will be absent as well."

After trudging back up the stairs, Frisk began to try and replant Flowey in his flowerbed, only for him to squirm away. "Just set me on the bedside table!" he said, trying not to think about how much his voice was shaking. "Stop delaying the inevitable and get in bed."

Frisk pouted. "I wasn't..." they huffed, slipping the pot onto the table before changing into their pyjamas and clambering into bed.

Briefly smirking over his small victory of getting Frisk to acquiesce to his demand, Flowey's mini mental celebration was cut woefully short as Frisk entered into a violent fit of coughing. He felt fear grip him in the pit of his stomache -- stem? -- and he leaned over slowly. "Heh, you'll... you'll be okay, right? This will pass, right?" he asked, flinching a bit as Frisk rolled over to look at him and reached over. They brushed their hand against his cheek and wiped away the tears that had begun to once again flow freely, much to Flowey's dismay.

"I'll be fine." they said, striking a somewhat lopsided grin. "It's just a cold; they happen all the time."

 

Frisk's words of reassurance lasted him until Toriel had left to go buy some medicine. Unfortunately, as Frisk drifted off to sleep, Flowey's fears got the better of him and ripped a sob from his throat, which only made him curl in on himself and coil up in his pot.

"I'm sorry, Chara, I'm sorry..." he repeated over and over for goodness knows how long until he had no more tears and not enough energy left to muster up any more.

A moment later, there was a knock at the door, followed by Toriel entering with a bottle and spoon. She sighed softly as she saw Frisk sleeping peacefully, then turned to Flowey with wide eyes. "Come along, Flowey, we should let Frisk rest..." she said quietly, approaching him and reaching out to pick up his pot, only for Flowey to hiss defensively, much to her shock.

"I'm not leaving Frisk." he snapped at her, grouchiness overcoming his worry for the time being. "I have to keep an eye on them, or, or..."

Or they'll die.

He felt tears sting his eyes again as Toriel slowly lifted his pot. Flowey stared up at Toriel, his petals pinned back like the ears of a frightened animal. However, she only smiled tiredly, her own eyes raw and red looking much like his own. "Frisk just needs some rest, and us nannying over them will do nothing but upset all three of us in the end."

"I-I guess..." he whispered, dipping back down into his pot again sadly. He didn't want to stress Frisk out when they were trying to get better, but he couldn't stop his mind from racing. He couldn't lose another friend, he just couldn't...

Jerking out of his thoughts, Flowey realized Toriel was taking him back downstairs. "Wh-What if something happens..." he protested weakly, looking back up at her.

"Nothing will happen." Toriel replied, saying it as much for herself as she did for him. "We just need to give them some space." Carrying Flowey into the kitchen, she set his pot on the counter and got out a saucepan. "Flowey," she said after grabbing some ingredients from the fridge, "I never asked, do you prefer cinnamon or butterscotch?"

Flowey blinked, staring blankly for a moment. Truthfully, he'd been asked this on so many resets, and each time it didn't really matter much. However, he had always preferred... "Butterscotch." he replied, shifting sheepishly in place.

Toriel smiled in response. "I see." Immediately, Flowey began to regret his honesty, the knowing look in Toriel's eye making him nervous.

"Would you like to help me make Frisk a 'get well soon' treat?" she offered, her gentle tone counteracting Flowey's anxiety somewhat. "I think we all would appreciate something sweet and comforting."

He nodded once again, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth as he watched Toriel start to prepare the butterscotch for her signature pie.

 

Later that night, once the pie had finished baking and Frisk had been delivered their piece -- along with a dose of medicine for the night -- things began to settle down. Flowey, however, did not.

"You're sure you'll be okay, right?" he asked for what seemed like the millionth time that day.

Rather than answering him, Frisk thought for a moment before asking, "Hey, you can't catch a human cold, can you?"

Flowey scoffed, though it came out rather pitiful due to his current emotional state. "I'm a plant, Frisk. And even if I wasn't, monsters have a totally different physiology to humans."

Tapping their chin, Frisk climbed out of their bed again and Flowey let out a worried squawk. "What are you doing?! Get back into bed-- hey, what?! Stop!" he wailed as Frisk dug their fingers into the soil of his pot, feeling for his roots.

"How long can you be out of soil?" they asked, which halted the flower's wild protesting for a moment.

"I-I'm not sure...?" he replied, his eyes darting around the room. "Wh-Why?"

Frisk removed their hands from his pot for a moment and walked out of the room, an action that made Flowey's mind race until they returned with a small plastic bag and a miniature pillowcase. "Wassat for?" he asked, frowning.

Kneeling down in front of the pot again, Frisk began to carefully dig for his roots once more. "Since you're worried about me dying, I'll put you at ease the best way I know how." they finally answered, scooping some soil into the bag before transferring him into it as well, packing in more dirt afterward. "You can sleep in my bed tonight and listen for my heartbeat any time you get scared, okay?"

As Frisk tightened the mouth of the bag around the base of Flowey's stem with a hair tie and slipped the pillowcase around it, Flowey watched them dumbfounded. Not even a month ago, he'd murdered Frisk over and over again for fun, and now he was going to sleep in their bed with them like a stuffed toy. It was mind-boggling. "O-Okay..." Flowey murmured as Frisk tied off the pillowcase as well, not daring to look them in the eye. Frisk petted his head in response, which only made him feel worse in a way, like an ever-growing number of spiders dancing around in his insides. It was an uneasy, unfamiliar feeling that seemed to only get worse every time Frisk found some way to put up with him and then acted like it was nothing.

Resituating their pillows so each of them could have one, Frisk pulled the blankets up over them both and looked to Flowey, who was staring blankly up at the ceiling. "Comfy?"

"Huh?" Flowey grunted, glancing over at Frisk again. "Oh, yeah." He leaned his head forward and bumped his face against Frisk's chest, listening in for their heartbeat. It took only a matter of seconds to pick up -- steady, soft, and comforting. "And it'll keep going..." he mumbled, yawning. It had gotten so late, far past the time he usually drifted off. "Your heartbeat..." He closed his eyes, feeling Frisk's hand on his sepals as the repetitive thumping lulled him to sleep.

 

Thanks to the medicine, the night was devoid of restless coughing and so, what with the covers pulled up over the two children's heads, both Frisk and Flowey slept in quite a bit. Despite that, Flowey was still the first to wake up, as had become the norm, only to realize that he must have been chewing on the front of Frisk's shirt in his sleep as he noted the wet spot by his face in the fabric. The second thing he noticed was that Frisk's heart was still beating, something that pulled a relieved sigh from him. Looking up at Frisk's face in order to try and rouse them so he could be potted, Flowey's words faded off before he could say them. They were sleeping so soundly, their expression relaxed and upper body snuggled up cozily against him.

Flowey lowered his head again, re-closing his eyes and nuzzling his face against Frisk's gently rising and falling chest. Maybe just five more minutes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I always imagined Frisk as pretty hardy, so if they ever got a cold they would probably recover from it quickly. After all, you have to be a sturdy kid to take a tumble down a mountain like that and not die.
> 
> But with how gun shy Flowey would likely be about human illness after Chara's... episode, it probably wouldn't take more than a sneeze to put him on edge, heheh.


	10. Chapter 10

Frisk's cold brought a bewildering rise in activity around the house. Flowey presumed it was the universe trying to make up for the fact that Frisk wasn't running around the halls with him tucked in their arms, but that didn't stop his rising anxiety due to Toriel and occasionally Asgore constantly coming and going.

Papyrus and Sans also visited later in the day, bearing a basketful of lemons. "CITRUS FRUITS ARE SUPPOSED TO DO WONDERS FOR A COLD." Papyrus explained, and Frisk looked to Sans as he fought back a chuckle, knowing this was partially his doing. No matter -- they smelled nice, none the less.

"Maybe we can make lemonade later." Frisk mused, setting the fruit basket aside. Flowey remained silent, watching Sans out of the corner of his eye. Sans, however, seemed unaffected by both Flowey's presence and the evil eye the flower was sending his way. Instead, the skeleton gave Frisk's hair a pat as the two brothers left.

"get well soon, kiddo." he said, to which Frisk nodded with a grin.

After their guests were out of earshot, Flowey looked back to Frisk. "How can you stand him?" he asked in a huff. "Sans is easily the most irritating monster ever, and this is coming from someone who spent enough time in Tem Village to send every single Temmie to college more than once."

Frisk tilted their head. "You must have befriended Sans too at some point." they countered.

"Uh yeah, sort of." Flowey frowned. "As much as anyone can befriend him anyway. It's not like he's ever all that genuine, even with his own brother." He coiled up in his pot, fuming. "Everything he says and does is just pretense. After all, he still threatened you after being your 'buddy' all through your travels in the Underground, right?"

"You heard that?" Frisk asked, looking a little flustered.

Flowey rolled his eyes. "You act like that's any surprise to you -- I remember you looking back at me every once in a while before I had the chance to hide."

Sighing softly, Frisk dipped their hand into Flowey's pot, brushing their fingertips along the edges of Flowey's petals. "I guess it's weird, but a lot of my best friends are people that wanted me dead at some point." they replied, stifling a giggle. "Including you."

Feeling his cheeks burn in embarrassment, Flowey wordlessly conceded their point. Thinking back on all he'd said about Sans, it all applied to him as well. The lying, the detachment, the distrusting nature -- all these things Flowey wished he could just leave behind, but that wasn't happening any time soon. He really did have to stop projecting so much...

But even so, he trusted Frisk now, didn't he? More than he did anyone else, anyway. Despite bringing him to the surface against his will, Frisk hadn't told anyone Flowey's secret and seemed to be trying as hard as they could to make him feel at home. Even while ill, they seemed more concerned with his comfort than getting better.

"So stupid..." Flowey muttered under his breath, winding his stem around a couple of Frisk's fingers and bumping the back of his head up into Frisk's palm. Picking up the gesture as a request to be petted, Frisk obliged with a small smile.

 

Late in the afternoon, when Frisk was taking a short nap, Flowey overheard Toriel chatting on the phone. Straining to listen in, it became clear fairly quickly that she was talking to Sans, mentioning how nice a gift the lemons were and that perhaps she would make a tart or something with them later. Flowey scowled at the thought of eating anything that Sans had brought by -- just because Papyrus had brought them too didn't mean this whole ordeal didn't reek of stupid, smiling trash.

It took a change of topic to snap Flowey out of his fuming.

"He was saying some worrying things a couple days ago, when Frisk first came down with their cold... Mmm, yes, I should probably... Well, Asgore did mention... Yes, I think that might be best, given the circumstances..."

Flowey felt the colour drain from his cheeks. What was she talking about? He pressed the side of his face against the wall to try and hear Toriel's side of the conversation better, but it was no use; she was walking further away. He was hesitant to wake Frisk up, but...

"Frisk!" he whispered urgently, bopping his head against their midsection. "Frisk, wake up!"

It didn't take long for his friend to rouse, groggily rubbing their eyes with their sleeve. "What is it?" Frisk asked, picking up Flowey's pot from off their bedside table. Scanning the flower's worried expression, Frisk frowned a bit. "Is something wrong?"

"I think mom and dad might know about me." he murmured, eyes wide and watery. Frisk could even spy the beginnings of fangs poking out from the top of his mouth. This was really hitting home...

"What do you want to do?" Frisk asked, reaching up and brushing some stray tears off his cheek with their thumb.

Flowey shook his head. "I don't know! I just... I'm not really Asriel anymore, so I don't want them to expect something from me..." Frisk listened silently, continuing to stroke his cheek. The dissonance of Flowey proclaiming his separation from Asriel all while wearing his face wasn't lost on them. There was something missing, some bit of information that would help everything make a little more sense, not just for Frisk but Flowey as well. His identity was so muddled, and he seemed to be having trouble keeping track of who he was at any given moment.

It was a feeling Frisk was reluctant to admit they could empathize with, at least to a degree.

Grabbing a tissue from the box that had been placed nearby, Frisk dried up Flowey's face. "Well, if they bring it up, you can tell them what you told me just now?" they offered by way of a solution. Flowey sighed softly and leaned against Frisk's shoulder.

"Yeah, I guess so." he said with a yawn. "You're so smart, Chara."

"I'm Frisk."

Flowey froze up. "Ah, right, I," he stumbled over his words, curling backward, "I'm sorry..."

Frisk shook their head, extending their arm to Flowey and pulling him back into a hug. "It's okay. I know the past few days have been hard on you, but I'm feeling a lot better now." They grinned down at Flowey, who looked back up at Frisk with tired but hopeful eyes. "But if you still wanna sleep in my bed tonight, I won't complain." Frisk added with a wink, which made Flowey puff out his cheeks and hide his face in their shirt again.

"Yeah, that would be..." he grumbled the last word out at half the volume, "... nice."

 

When morning arrived, Frisk was all better. Both Toriel and Flowey were more than relieved and breakfast was free of quite a bit of the tension and awkwardness that was present even before Frisk's cold.

And if Toriel did know anything regarding Flowey's identity, she didn't bring it up. Instead, however, she presented him with what looked like a miniature pair of overalls, but with a small sack at the bottom where the pant legs normally were. "I am glad you two found a temporary solution for when you wanted to sleep closer together, but I think a more durable version would be better in the long run." she said as Flowey inspected the garment with awe. "Think of it as a softer, even more portable flowerpot."

"Thank you..." Flowey blurted out quietly, which made Toriel smile.

"You are welcome, Flowey."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The world needs more Flowey in tiny overalls.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for your patience regarding the release of this chapter! I hope you enjoy!
> 
> Also, I have gotten fanart of this fic somehow? ;u; Thank you so much for the adorable art!
> 
> http://boomer6.deviantart.com/art/Fanfic-Doodles-661981402  
> http://gothlolicatgirl.deviantart.com/art/Somewhere-between-the-moon-and-six-feet-under-WIP-665059495

Halloween was, apparently, a holiday where kids dressed up and went door to door asking for candy. The premise seemed silly, but, as Flowey vaguely recalled Chara mentioning it offhand with a similar description, he was inclined to believe Frisk when they described it that way.

"What do you dress as?" Flowey asked Frisk, eager to learn more.

Frisk shrugged in response. "It changes every year for most people. Last year I was a zombie, but I was thinking of being something cute this year instead."

"Like what?"

Cupping their chin in their palm thoughtfully for a moment, Frisk shrugged. "Not sure... I have to see what I can get together first."

Flowey dipped his head down a bit, drifting off into his own thoughts. It sounded fun, Halloween. He wanted to dress up too, but being a flower his options were limited.

"Maybe we can draw some outfit ideas?" Frisk suggested, which made Flowey look back up at them. He still hadn't put anything into that notebook that Miss Beaumont had given him; perhaps this would be a good time to break it in?

Soon enough, both children were on the floor, Frisk flopped down on their stomach and Flowey sitting in his new overalls, crayons scattered about and two pads of paper between them. They both got to work, Frisk starting off right away while Flowey sat in contemplation for a bit longer. Nothing came to him so he started to doodle his photoshop form instead, feeling the corners of his mouth pull up and away from the crayon he had clamped between his teeth. Frisk peeked over after a bit and grinned.

"It's your TV head form!" they exclaimed, making Flowey flinch and look back over to Frisk with a bashful expression.

"A 'TV head'?" he asked, diverting his eyes away from both his friend and his drawing. "Is that actually a thing?"

Frisk nodded. "That's the first thing I remember thinking when I saw you looking like that. Well, beyond being scared out of my shorts."

Flowey smiled a bit again at that. "Yeah, I was pretty scary looking!" he boasted, puffing up proudly before wilting forward again. "But I couldn't think of a costume..."

Reaching over, Frisk took ahold of Flowey's sketchbook and turned it around to get a better look. "I bet we could make something kinda like this," they said, tapping the page, "If we get creative with it."

Mulling the possibilities over, Flowey nodded slowly. "Actually, yeah, maybe we can."

 

It took a couple hours and a trip to the store to gather everything together for Flowey's costume. After cobbling it together with a cardboard box with a "screen" cut out of it, an old sweater, and some miscellaneous details added on with articles found here and there around the house -- some even coloured on, if needed -- Frisk set Flowey in a wagon and piled the costume on.

"Does it look good?" Flowey asked, adjusting his face to peer out of the "screen". Taking a step back, Frisk looked him over for a moment before giving a thumbs up, which caused an excited smile to break through his worried expression. "What now?"

"Now we get to go trick or treating." Frisk replied, grabbing a couple of pillowcases.

However, something was amiss. "But, Frisk, you need a costume too!"

"Ah, oh yeah." The human paused, looking thoughtful. They had completely forgotten to put together a costume for themselves, having been too wrapped up in making Flowey's costume as cool as they possibly could. Suddenly, an idea hit them.

"Wait here." they told Flowey before scampering out of the room. Frisk grabbed a long black tee from the back of one of their bureau drawers, slipped on a pair of flats, and grabbed a red ribbon to tie into a headband with a bow on top. Nabbing a broom on the way back toward Flowey, their petaled friend looked up at them curiously.

"What are you dressed as?" he asked.

Frisk paused again, then grinned. "I have to show you some good movies later." they replied, grabbing the handle of the wagon. "Anyway, let's go trick-or-treating."

 

No one expected the evening to go on as long as it did. Frisk assumed the crowds might get too much for Flowey after a while and drive him to ask to be taken home. Flowey more or less assumed the same, but was surprised to be somewhat more at ease around the groups of children wandering the streets from house to house. Perhaps because they were in costumes, some even wearing masks. He couldn't understand why that would make him less apprehensive, but that was the only reason he could think of.

Another surprise came in the fact that quite a few monster children decided to join right in on the festivities. Most of them had very rushed looking costumes, as chances were high most of them had little time between finding out about Halloween and the night itself, but were having fun none the less.

As it began to get later, Flowey would scarf down more and more candy to keep himself from dozing off as he tended to do once the sun was down completely. Noticing this, Frisk poked at his cheek teasingly. "You're not gonna have any candy left for later if you keep that up."

Flowey stuck out his tongue. "Don't tell me what to do, Frisk."

"I guess I can't stop you, I'm just saying..." Frisk murmured, returning the gesture before noticing something off about Flowey's tongue and laughing. "Your tongue is blue!"

"What? Really?" Flowey perked up, trying to cross his eyes to see it to no avail.

Pulling out their phone, Frisk snapped a quick photo and looked it over before showing it to their friend, whose face went slightly pink in response. "You aren't gonna show that to Toriel, are you?"

"I might." Frisk replied with a playful smirk. "I actually like this picture a lot. I think I'll save it."

Huffing, Flowey grabbed another piece of taffy out of his bag and devoured it. After a few moments, he looked to Frisk and asked, "Are you gonna eat any of your candy, or are you 'saving' it."

"I'm gonna wait til we're done and then sort out the ones I don't want." Frisk responded, glancing into their bag. "Do you like just chocolate? I only like it when it has peanut butter in it."

Pausing for a moment, Flowey nodded. "Yeah, chocolate's pretty good." he said, making a mental note to save all his peanut butter cups.

 

After scouring the town and visiting nearly every neighbourhood they could find, both children were exhausted. Trudging home with a wagonful of candy and an unconscious best friend via sugar coma, Frisk blinked as they noticed Toriel standing on the front lawn, hurriedly patching with a plastic bag and tape what looked like a hole in one of the windows. As they hurried over, Toriel heard their footsteps and turned to them, smiling gently.

"Did you two collect a lot of candy?" she asked.

Frisk managed a tentative nod before glancing past her to the window again. "What happened?" they asked.

Despite their concern, Toriel waved it off. "Just an accident, nothing to worry about." she said, ushering Frisk inside and leaning down to pick up Flowey, who groggily flopped against Toriel's shoulder and tucked his head into the crook of her neck.

Upon getting inside and unloading the candy from the wagon, Frisk stole another brief glance at the hole in the window. It was awfully big... Was it really an accident? However, they hardly had time to dwell on it, as Toriel led Frisk upstairs to brush their teeth, with Flowey being briefly roused to do the same. Soon enough, the exhaustion of a long day spent having fun overtook any and all thoughts of broken windows as both children were put soundly to bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Halloween is my favourite holiday~


	12. Chapter 12

The following week was to be spent at Sans and Papyrus' house. Flowey was, predictably enough, rather unhappy with the sudden change in environment. Even the reminder that Papyrus would be there only seemed to damper this sour outlook briefly.

"A whole week spent with that sloppy, smiling skeleton, I can't believe it..." he grumbled as they were picked up from school from the very monster he was talking about, though Sans seemed content to ignore the flower's protests.

Frisk understood to a degree as to why this was happening, but battled with themselves on whether or not to tell Flowey. He was already a bundle of nerves and anxiety, something that hopefully the next visit with Miss Beaumont would shed some light on the path to fixing, and he hadn't seemed to notice the hole in the window on Halloween, and if he had it hadn't seemed to affect him much. Part of Frisk hoped it had been an accident as Toriel had claimed, but another much louder part of them feared it wasn't something so harmless. Instead of replying to any of Flowey's griping, they simply hugged his pot closer in silence, not even hearing Sans ask how their day at school was.

"OVER HERE!" Papyrus waved wildly to the three of them from his seat in his red convertible and over the head of a grinning Undyne in the passenger seat, who excitedly mussed Frisk's hair as they climbed into the back.

"Long time no see, Frisk!" the fish woman exclaimed.

Frisk felt themselves smile a little and nodded. "How is police training going?"

The redhead rolled her visible eye. "Ugh, lame. Apparently you can't just tear the obstacle course apart if it's in your way, even if you finish faster than anyone who actually ran the stupid thing." Noting Frisk's expression starting to darken with worry, Undyne smirked at them reassuringly. "But otherwise, I think I'm doing great! These humans will be lucky to have someone like me on the force."

"Yeah~" Frisk nodded, smiling again. Flowey looked up at Frisk at this, his eyes scanning their expression thoughtfully. Feeling Flowey's eyes on them, Frisk met his gaze. "What's up?" they asked quietly, their words drowned out by the rest of the commotion in the car as Papyrus quizzed Undyne excitedly about academy life so only Flowey could hear them.

The flower opened his mouth as if to say something, but then quickly snapped it shut again. "... Later." he muttered, looking away bashfully. "When it's not so noisy."

"Okay."

 

Mysteriously, Sans and Papyrus' house, though it looked structurally different on the outside, was identical in every way to their old house back in Snowdin once you stepped through the front door. Frisk only momentarily questioned this, receiving only a shrug from Sans and a non-explanation from Papyrus by way of, "THOUGH CHANGE IS WONDERFUL AND EXCITING, IT'S GOOD TO HAVE SOMETHING FAMILIAR TO RETURN TO." After that, they decided it was best to chalk it up to magic and not ask any more questions about it. It wasn't as if they had much time to think on it anyway, what with Undyne excitedly relaying all that had been going on in her life.

"Between going to the academy, I've been fiddling around with the electronic keyboard I got to tide me over until I can bring my piano up." she continued, "It's really cool, you can play all kinds of instruments on it!"

"I was actually wondering about that." Frisk murmured, tilting their head. "How did two full sized pianos make it into the underground undamaged?"

Undyne waved a hand. "Beats me. Those things are older than I am. Asgore owned them before me, so he probably found them in the dump somewhere and fixed them up. Or maybe he just had them built?"

"Are you gonna bring your keyboard over sometime?" Undyne stopped and stared at Flowey the moment he piped in, seemingly surprised. "Are you?" he reiterated, his face set into as serious a face he could muster.

"Sure, kid." she responded somewhat half-heartedly. Frisk bit their lip -- truthfully, Undyne had been one of the voices of wary concern when Frisk told their friends they had brought Flowey to the surface. Though they all remembered very little of Frisk and Flowey's final confrontation, her being aware of the flower's ambush alone had made her less than trusting. Even though Flowey's behaviour was turning around, Frisk knew it would be a lot to ask for everyone to immediately be comfortable around him.

In an attempt to lighten the mood, Frisk petted Flowey's petals. "Do you like playing the piano too?" they asked him, to which Flowey nodded.

"Heh, well, I'll bring it next time I come by then." Undyne replied, a toothy smile eking onto her face.

Flowey returned the smile just as awkwardly before glancing away.

The mild tension dissolved soon enough as Papyrus burst in. "I MADE SUPPER!" he announced, ushering everyone into the kitchen to take a plate of spaghetti. Tucking Flowey's pot in the crook of their elbow, Frisk carried both their plates back to the couch and took a seat, setting them both down and placing Flowey beside one. Flowey prodded at the spaghetti for a moment before looking to Frisk, rearing back in surprise as the human began to dig in.

"How...?" he whispered, mystified.

Frisk shrugged. "It's a little less crunchy this time~" they said, stuffing another forkful of noodles into their mouth. "Wanna try some?"

Flowey shook his head. "Maybe after a few more cooking lessons." he replied with a strained smirk.

"I think the meatballs are store-bought at the very least, so you don't go hungry."

The flower's face went slightly pink. "You're not gonna let this go, are you?" he asked, noting the determined gleam in Frisk's eye. "But I guess that would be okay."

Smiling more, Frisk jammed their fork into a meatball and held it out to him. After blowing on it for a few seconds, Flowey chomped down on the morsel and chewed, his cheeks puffed up to accommodate the large bite he'd taken before swallowing. "... Not bad." he said after a moment. "I want something sweet now, though."

With a soft laugh, the human picked up their friend and looked to Papyrus. "Are our overnight bags upstairs?" they asked, and Papyrus nodded.

"I'VE KEPT THEM SAFE AND SECURE IN MY ROOM." he clarified. "ARE YOU DONE EATING ALREADY?"

"I might have more later." Frisk replied, ascending the stairs with Flowey's pot.

 

Once closing Papyrus' door after entering the room, Flowey let out a long sigh, dropping over the edge of his pot. "And I thought I was good at faking it." he quipped with a snort, glancing to Frisk once more. "But you've been gloomy all day and can still try and get me to play nice."

Frisk went a little pink. "Was I that obvious?"

Flowey straightened up slowly, fanning out his petals. "I'm catching onto how your mood works, so it's more noticeable now when something is wrong." Shifting in place, he looked to Frisk's backpack. "Hey, check out the side pocket."

Blinking, the human did as they were told, pulling out a plastic bag filled with peanut butter cups with a surprised look on their face.

"I don't like peanut butter, so you can have them." Flowey said, shifting once more as his own face began to burn. "Just stop being sad, it's weird!"

There was a pause, followed by Frisk closing the space between them again and wrapping their arms carefully around Flowey. "Yeah, you're right." Frisk said, touching their forehead to Flowey's top petals. "I guess I've just been overthinking some things, but I should just try to focus on moving forward."

"Yeah..." Flowey murmured, quickly pecking Frisk's cheek. "Affection is good when you're scared, right?" he asked.

After another pause, Frisk beamed and nodded. "Right."

A smile crept over Flowey's features as well. It was only a little bit, but something deep inside him felt warm knowing he could return the favour of Frisk cheering him up so many times.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I always wondered how those full-size pianos got into the Underground unscathed, especially since most of what they have comes from the dump.


	13. Chapter 13

The living room of Sans and Papyrus' house was oddly dark and cavernous in the morning. Combined with the incredibly comfortable couch Frisk and Flowey had been set up on for the duration of their stay, it was no surprise the two of them slept in that Saturday. Flowey only roused due to the sound of Papyrus dutifully cooking breakfast for everyone but Frisk stayed quite unconscious until they were prodded at by their floral friend, accompanied by playful teasing about how they sleep like a moss-covered log that snores. However, the groggy human only managed a half-grin and a haphazard ruffling of Flowey's petals in response due to their slow start. Neither got the chance to do much more in terms of waking up fully before being presented with their own separate plates of scrambled eggs and bacon.

"I KNOW YOU MUST BOTH BE DISAPPOINTED TO NOT GET ANY MORE DELICIOUS PASTA THIS MORNING, BUT AFTER LAST NIGHT I NEED TO GO TO THE GROCERY STORE FOR MORE SUPPLIES." Papyrus explained to the children mournfully. "I HOPE THIS SUFFICES FOR NOW."

"It's okay, Papyrus, bacon and eggs is a good meal too." Frisk placated while they cut up their eggs.

To both children's silent surprise, the food was highly palatable. 'Maybe it's just spaghetti he sucks at,' Flowey mused as Frisk fed him a slice of bacon.

Sans dumped his empty plate in the sink, something that made Frisk crane their neck a bit to see if they could spot any food left on his plate, which there wasn't. They'd never seen Sans open his mouth, let alone eat, so where did the food go? Maybe Flowey had seen it during a past reset... Admittedly, Frisk was curious about all Flowey had seen that they hadn't. After all, he had to have had a different experience going through his many, many runs as a resident of the Underground (monster? plant? plant-monster?) than their very few runs as a human. They also knew that discussing a lot of what happened on their respective runs could be a sore subject for the both of them, which is what kept Frisk ultimately from getting too outwardly curious.

"Friiiiisk, give me eeeeeegggs..." Flowey hissed, bumping his head against Frisk's arm to bring them out of their thoughts. Giggling a bit, Frisk complied, stabbing a bit of egg with a fork and bringing it over to him.

From his spot on the couch, Sans watched and chuckled. "you've gone and spoiled him, frisk." he said, a comment that immediately put Flowey on edge.

"I don't have any arms, they're just helping." the flower growled, his metaphorical hackles rising.

Sans shrugged idly. "relax, kid. i just think it's kinda funny." he replied, leaning back in his seat. "you're pretty prickly, but i guess frisk can wear even your thorns down a bit."

Sensing Flowey's temper starting to rise, Frisk prodded at one of his petals. "So, I was thinking we would drop the notepad you got from Miss Beaumont off at her house today before she sees you on Monday." they piped in, trying to divert their ornery friend's attention. "So she can have time to look it over before your appointment."

His scowl melted into a mere pout as Flowey looked back to Frisk. "I guess..." he muttered. Admittedly, he hadn't drawn anything ground-breaking: his big, cool, scary form, a couple pictures of Frisk and him doing fun stuff, a family portrait... He'd messed up a little on the last one, so he wasn't very proud of it. What some doctor could take away from crayon drawings he had no idea.

 

Flowey was surprised to learn that, despite working in the next town over, Miss Beaumont lived in Gaskey. Sans had offered to accompany the two of them, much to Flowey's dismay, but despite that the walk to her house was a pleasant one. That is, until Flowey started vaguely recognizing landmarks. It was foggy at best until he spotted a garden of familiar flowers.

"Frisk..." he whispered hoarsely, starting to tremble. The human looked down at him curiously as they rose their free arm to ring the doorbell. His words caught in his throat as the door opened, Miss Beaumont's welcoming expression shifting into one of worry. Frisk managed to spot the patch of flowers and quickly cupped their hand over Flowey's eyes.

"May we come in?" they asked, to which the doctor nodded and ushered the three of them inside, giving Sans a brief look-over before closing the door.

Miss Beaumont's home was small but well-furnished and smelled of coconut. Sans, Frisk, and Flowey were directed into the living room and Miss Beaumont fetched them tea, as well as a cup of water for Flowey. His breathing was ragged but the shaking had lessened somewhat. "Do you know what set him off?" Miss Beaumont asked Frisk.

"Mm, I think," they murmured, petting Flowey's head as they took the glass of water and maneuvered the straw in front of his face, "It was the flowers." Sans listened in silence, watching intently as he took a teacup in his gloved hand.

"I see." Miss Beaumont crossed her arms pensively for a moment. "Well, we need to regulate his breathing or else he won't calm down. Do you remember how to do that, Frisk?"

Nodding, Frisk looked back down to Flowey, who still hadn't gone for the straw. "Hey Flowey, listen," they began, "You gotta breathe in slowly, okay? Watch me and do what I do." Flowey's eyes locked on their's for a moment, trying to process everything they had said before nodding. Frisk took in an even breath, tapping their knee at a steady tempo, held it, then released it at the same even rate. "I'll keep track like this." they said, continuing to tap their knee. "Breathe in for four beats, then hold it for three, then out for four. Four, three, four." There was a pause again, then Flowey complied, repeating the process a few more times until the tremours began to peter out.

 

After the situation had eased, Flowey remained rather groggy through the visit, having tired himself out. He leaned against Frisk's arm, sipping his warm tea after finishing the water and listening as Frisk and Sans chatted with the doctor. Sans in particular seemed interested in discussing Miss Beaumont's field of study, mentioning off hand that he himself had a PhD but hadn't bothered to show up to get his diploma. Frisk handed off Flowey's notebook, which Miss Beaumont assured them she would look over. As the visit began to wind down, Flowey noticed a smattering of pictures located on the far wall and perked up a bit to get a better look at them.

Numerous different people were shown in each one, ranging from young to very, very old. One picture of some children in particular caught his attention. "Hey, Miss Beaumont?" he chimed in for the first time all afternoon. "Who're they?"

Looking over at the picture in question, Miss Beaumont blinked in surprise. "Oh, my grandfather and his sisters. This house is generations old, so I thought putting up a bunch of old family portraits would add to the atmosphere. Why?"

Flowey studied the picture with wide eyes. The three children were seated in the garden, quite messy but looking proud of themselves. The boy in the middle had Miss Beaumont's smile. All three had brown hair and eyes and lean builds, but one of the children seated to the left caught Flowey's eye. Something in the way their eyes held a quiet intensity and their wry but charming smile was unmistakable.

Chara.

"No reason."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really want a garden someday. I have a lot of grand dreams about my future yard, haha.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MORE FANART WHAT???
> 
> https://inkams.tumblr.com/post/158452753865/because-im-not-sure-how-to-turn-overall-pant-legs (lineart)  
> https://inkams.tumblr.com/post/158486786460/colored-flowey-from-last-night (coloured version)
> 
> Also, I decided to also draw Flowey in overalls myself, since that seems to be the trend in fanart this fic gets. This is more what I see, but you're all free to interpret it any way you wish!
> 
> https://snuggly-spookypasta.tumblr.com/post/158489738310/in-regards-to-the-fic-im-writing-a-lot-of-people

A sickening tightness had made it's home deep in the pit of Flowey's stem for the next few days. He had to stave off Frisk's worried questioning about if he was alright with the occasional "yeah, sure, whatever", even with how pointless he knew lying to them about this was. They had seen the picture too, after all, and they weren't as stupid as they sometimes came off.

Through the swirling fog that had become his mind, that all-too-familiar thought came the sleepless night before his scheduled appointment with his therapist:

'There's no escaping your mistakes, you idiot.'

Flowey stifled a yelp as he bit down, realizing he'd been chewing on one of his bottom petals. Great, that probably had left a mark, one Frisk or Toriel would notice. Well, maybe just Frisk, since they were still stuck at Sans and Papyrus' house until the week was out. Oh well, he'd just have to make something up if anyone mentioned it. Turning his head slightly, Flowey eyed Frisk to make sure he hadn't woken them up. It was very hard to tell, since Frisk was almost always squinting and looked like their eyes were closed anyway. After a while without any sign of them stirring, he released a quiet sigh of relief and snuggled closer. He wasn't sure if sleep would be coming tonight, but at least he could keep warm.

 

Apparently he had managed to pass out last night, as Flowey was awoken that morning by Frisk gently urging him to wake up. The first thing he saw was the front of Frisk's sleep shirt, then became aware he was being hugged quite tightly.

"Fuh-Frisk, what...?" he mumbled groggily, looking upwards toward Frisk's face. They seemed... worried. Oh no.

"You were thrashing around really badly again." Frisk told him, which made Flowey hide his face again in their shirt. "Flowey, please tell Miss Beaumont about this today."

He scowled. "It's just a nightmare, Frisk. Everyone has them."

"Not like this." Frisk replied immediately, hugging him tighter.

"I... I don't..." he trailed off.

"She can't help you if you don't tell her the truth, Flowey."

He stiffened, looking down. "No one can help me, Frisk. I'm soulless, that's not something anyone can fix."

Frisk's mouth pressed into a firm line. "No one can give you your soul back, but you can still choose if you wanna suffer or not."

Ah, determination. Flowey could tell he was losing this argument fast, so he mistakenly blurted out, "What if I want to suffer, then?!" Immediately he regretted it, as Frisk's expression strained visibly.

"I won't let you." they whispered, brushing their fingers against his sepals. "You're my best friend, so even if being sad and angry and alone is what you want, I refuse to let it happen."

 

In the end, Flowey did end up telling Miss Beaumont about what had happened. As always, she listened attentively, concern plastered all over her face. She also returned his drawing pad to him, which he was more happy about.

"You're very creative." she told Flowey, which made him perk up a little for the first time in a while. "Though I got the chance to look through them before, I was hoping you would tell me about some of them."

Pausing, he nodded and flipped open the notepad. He had briefly considered asking about the picture of Chara in her house, but his nerves had failed him. Perhaps another time.

 

At the end of his session, Miss Beaumont brought him back out to Frisk, who was sitting in the waiting room with Caden doing a jigsaw puzzle. Frisk stood as the two entered and took Flowey's pot into their arms, studying his face for a bit before hugging him close once more.

"You came here and talked to her today." they said as quietly as they could so only Flowey could hear. "I'm proud of you."

Flowey's face heated up and he quickly hid in Frisk's shoulder. "Yeah, I know..." he muttered, smiling a little as he heard Frisk giggle.

Miss Beaumont smiled as well, patting Caden's head as he hurried to her side. "Frisk, if you could get your mother to come in on Flowey's next visit, I would like to discuss some things with her."

Frisk looked up at her, as did Flowey. "You're not gonna tell her about all this, right?" he asked, frowning once more.

She shook her head. "As I said before, I will not be telling anyone what is discussed in our sessions, but I do need to talk to her about moving forward with your therapy."

"For now, though, do you wanna go get some candy as a treat?" Frisk asked, to which Flowey's eyes widened a bit in anticipation. "I'll take that as a yes."

 

Later that evening, after returning to Sans and Papyrus' house with a bag of gummy worms -- already half eaten during the bus ride back -- Flowey watched the sun set from the safety of Frisk's arms while wearing his overalls. Drowsiness was starting to overtake him, which was comforting at the very least. Maybe tonight would be less restless.

Frisk grabbed another gummy worm and offered it to him, which Flowey happily snapped up. Halfway through it, he found himself starting to nod off. Chuckling, Frisk leaned down and nipped off the end still poking out of his mouth, and Flowey felt their lips only just graze his own, which made his head swim. Closing his eyes, he curled closer to the human, the warmth from his face and Frisk's embrace intermingling to lull him to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now I want some gummies...


	15. Chapter 15

Undyne's house, in stark contrast with Sans and Papyrus', was starkly furnished, consisting of only a futon, a standard kitchen setup, a laundry basket full of clothes, and an electric keyboard plugged into the wall. It was easy to assume she had yet to go back Underground to rifle through the remains of her house, as well as that she probably didn't spend much time at her own house at least for the time being.

"Take a seat on the futon, kid!" Undyne said by way of a welcome and sat down the keyboard, which she'd been fiddling with. "I figure freeing all monsterkind has earned you the right to at least sit on my bed." she added with a grin. Frisk giggled and took a seat, bouncing in place for a few moments before setting Flowey's pot on their lap. "Either of you want some tea?" Undyne asked, heading into the kitchen.

"Do you have any soda?" Flowey asked, looking a little devious. After Undyne replied with a firm 'NO' echoing back from around the corner, he pouted and leaned back against Frisk. "It's always worth a try." he muttered. "I was never able to get it out of her."

Frisk looked down at him curiously. "She never did tell me why she had it in the first place." they replied, pursing their lips in thought.

"Oh, it's because, if anime night was at her house, Alphys would drink it." he answered, rolling his eyes. "But I guess, with her house being so empty, that whole deal has been moved to the good doctor's place until further notice." The last half of that sentence seemed distractingly scathing, which made Frisk tense up a little. They hadn't been able to visit Alphys yet since coming to the surface -- between all that had been going on and her on the hunt for new employment, there had been no time to. Due to his origins, Frisk could only imagine how negative Flowey's opinions of Alphys were.

"How come you kept trying to get some soda?" Frisk asked, trying to turn the subject around.

Flowey perked up a little. "Oh, I was never allowed to have soda at home." he responded with a weak smile. "Mom thought it was junk."

For some reason, that brought a bit of a smile to Frisk's face. "Well, I'm not a big fan of most soda either, but maybe we'll grab some root beer sometime. That stuff's pretty good."

"Wait, so soda isn't allowed but beer is okay?" Flowey asked incredulously, smirking. "I don't understand you humans."

Stifling a laugh behind their hand, Frisk looked up as Undyne reentered the room, carrying three cups. After setting two of the cups on the floor by Frisk's feet, Undyne took a seat with her own cup in hand. "Sorry about the empty room, but I haven't had much time to furnish the place." she said with a dismissive hand wave before glancing down to Flowey. "But this little guy here wanted to play with the keyboard, right?"

Frisk and Flowey nodded in tandem, which elicited a chuckle from Undyne. "Right, right..." she said, standing and walking over to the keyboard, turning it on. Frisk scuttled over, setting Flowey's pot beside the instrument before heading back toward the futon to grab their drinks.

Pausing for a moment, Flowey leaned forward and rested his chin on one of the keys, his eyes lighting up at the crisp note it produced. Noticing his reaction, Undyne put on her signature grin. "You a music fan?" she asked, to which Flowey nodded again. "You know this one?" Reaching in, Undyne played a short, melodic piece which Frisk immediately reccognized.

"That's the song from the statue in Waterfall!" they exclaimed, hurrying back over with the cups. Flowey listened intently before looking up to Undyne. "That's the puzzle you made, right?" they asked, making Undyne's chest puff out proudly. "I was never able to get it right..."

"Where did you hear that song?" Flowey cut in quietly, grabbing both Frisk and Undyne's attention. "Where did you learn it?"

Undyne scratched at the spot behind one of her fins. "Well, I actually just kinda stumbled onto it. Y'see," she shifted in position, getting comfortable, "When I was younger and training under Asgore, he suggested I take up a hobby that wasn't so aggressive. Something constructive, y'know? So he let me start playing the old piano he had." Undyne fiddled with a few keys. "Apparently it had belonged to the prince, but since..." she trailed off only for a moment, "Well, Asgore didn't play so he promised that if I put it to good use I could have it. After taking it back home, I started looking it over and found a scribbled out bit of sheet music with this song on it folded up under the lid!" Her grin returned. "It's a cute song, right? After learning it, I figured it might make a good puzzle, so I eventually got around to asking Gerson to make a music box with the song and stuck it in that old statue as a hint. Call it my contribution to our age old, species wide puzzle obsession."

Frisk smiled before looking back to Flowey, who seemed lost in thought.

 

That evening, Flowey came to Frisk with an odd request.

"Can we visit Waterfall before we go back home tonight?" he asked, averting his eyes.

Frisk studied him silently for a moment. "Did you wanna go see the piano puzzle?" they asked, to which Flowey shifted uncomfortably but nodded in response. "Alright."

 

It took a while to hike back up Mt Ebott, especially since Frisk had somewhat fallen out of the habit since bringing Flowey up to the surface. With the use of Hotland's elevators, it was a short stroll to get to Waterfall and an oddly quiet walk the rest of the way. The echo flowers had long since trailed off into nearly silent whispers with the only real noise being made as Frisk shuffled through the swampy grass. Once the dirt got a bit more solid, Frisk planted Flowey and stuffed his pot into their backpack for now. Seeing him pop up and down along the corridors brought a nostalgic smile to their face. Even though it had only been a month, Frisk felt as though it was so long ago that they were trapped here and jumping every time they spotted Flowey out of the corner of their eye. Now he was like a bright yellow beacon in the dim light of the cavern.

After a bit longer, Frisk heard the telltale sound of the music box playing and dashed ahead, stopping in front of the statue. The umbrella they'd left was still in place, a sight that made Frisk grin. Flowey popped up beside them and stared up at the statue as well.

"Did you know about the music box?" he asked, glancing back to Frisk. They shook their head. "Then why leave the umbrella?"

Frisk rocked on their heels for a moment. "The statue was getting wet. I felt bad for it."

Flowey pouted, looking down. "You're weird." he said after a brief pause, diving back under the ground before cropping back up in the next room. Frisk followed, turning to wave goodbye to the statue briefly before turning the corner. As they approached the piano, Frisk turned their eyes on Flowey.

"I didn't think much of this puzzle when I saw it." he muttered, gaze firmly locked on the ground. "I couldn't reach the keys so I just avoided it. I got mad knowing I couldn't play it but there was nothing I could do. There was never anyone out here to give me a lift."

Stepping forward, Frisk bent down and dug their fingers into the dirt around him, carefully pulling Flowey free of the earth. As always, he stiffened as his roots were exposed to the air, only easing a little again when he was repotted and lifted to be level with the keys. His eyes scanned them over, a shiver running through him. "Yeah, this'us... it's my piano." Flowey murmured with a weak chuckle, resting his head on one of the keys and closing his eyes at the crisp sound in produced. Frisk spotted the folded up sheet music -- stuck exactly in the place Undyne had said she found it -- and examined it in it's entirety. It was sloppily jotted down in pencil and signed 'Prince Asriel Dreemurr'. Frisk glanced to Flowey and smiled a little again, offering the sheet music out. Flowey shook his head and, slowly, he plunked out the notes to the music box tune on his own. The two children flinched in unison as a hole opened up beside them.

Tentatively, Frisk took a step inside, hugging Flowey's pot close. In the dark, they could only just make out a reddish-orange orb sitting on a podium.

"What's...--"

Frisk was cut off by a loud gasp from Flowey. "Frisk, it's a Dragon Ball!" he shouted, lurching forward excitedly.

"A... what?"

He rolled his eyes. "Well, a toy one. Before you visit that stupid doctor, we have to watch some better anime than whatever she'll show you."

Chuckling, Frisk held Flowey's pot out so he could nab the ball, which showed up as "Legendary Artifact - Best obtained with the help of a friend" in their inventory.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly, I thought the Legendary Artifact was a Dragon Ball when I first saw it in-game. My DBZ nostalgia nearly exploded.


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for this chapter taking so long! I've been moving into my new apartment and work has been kicking my butt. ;u;

Being smack in the middle of November, Autumn was in full swing and, much to Flowey's disappointment, this meant it would only be getting colder as it got closer to the end of the year. Being more exposed to the changing seasons made his plant body -- one that thrived on sunlight and warmth -- more sluggish than he had been in the Underground, where he could go to one of the spots where the sun peaked through at any time if he so needed and the temperature was consistent to the area he was in. However, Frisk explained that, admittedly, humans got pretty sluggish around this time of the year too.

"What's your excuse?" Flowey asked, the lack of bite in his tone to his otherwise condescending snipe surprising himself momentarily (though not enough to comment on), "Humans don't photosynthesize." He only just managed to say the last word correctly, though the slight lisp that eked out at the end made Frisk smile despite his remark.

In response, they merely shrugged. "I guess everything slows down when it gets colder."

"Oh yeah, I guess that's what our science textbook says..." Flowey murmured, glancing to the pile of books stacked on the table by the window. He'd already read quite a ways ahead of where they were in class at the moment, but he couldn't help it. Science was so fascinating and there was always more to learn.

"It also says most plants hibernate when the weather gets cold." Frisk added, and Flowey only just managed to catch them shift in an uncomfortable manner.

"True." he replied. "I definitely feel like I could sleep for a few months."

As soon as the words left his mouth, Flowey immediately wished they hadn't as he saw Frisk visibly flinch. Chewing his lower lip, he tried to follow it up but was cut off when Toriel entered the room.

"I am going grocery shopping, would you two like to join me?" she asked. Frisk nodded quickly, scooping up Flowey's pot before following her out.

 

If he were honest with himself, Flowey had never been able to hate Toriel. Not after leaving his dad or replacing him over and over with every kid she could get her hands on. Admittedly, Asriel had always been a huge mama's boy, so despite everything Flowey could never manage to hate her.

But, at this moment, he felt the closest to hate for Toriel he'd ever been able to muster.

Toriel pushed the cart through the aisles, occasionally plucking something off the shelves, turning it over in her paw to inspect it. Frisk sat in the basket, staying silent and still besides the occasional acknowledgement of anything Toriel asked for their approval on (usually breakfast cereals they would eat or what dinners they might like). Flowey, meanwhile, sat in the seat at the head of the cart beside a carton of milk, fuming. He knew Frisk wouldn't continue their conversation in front of Toriel -- they had a tendency to hide things from her, which Flowey understood all too well but still frustrated him to no end when it came to things like this.

His dour mood was only broken for a moment when Toriel lamented that she couldn't find the snails and would have to stop by Napstablook's home later to see if he had any on the way back. The prospect of snail pie only managed to provide brief distraction, however, and catching sight of Frisk looking back down to a can of chickpeas, picking at the label idly, brought his frustration roaring back. He wanted to talk to them, maybe even ask them what was wrong? Maybe.

"Do you have anything you want, Flowey?" Toriel asked, breaking the flower's concentration once more.

Looking around frantically, Flowey spotted some carrots, only to quickly repel away from them. "Um," he scraped for something to say before blurting out, "Snail pie." Toriel's eyebrows rose at that which made Flowey duck down into his pot nervously.

"We will have to see if I can find everything for it." she replied, turning her attention back to the shelves.

Flowey looked frantically back to Frisk, who seemed simultaneously intrigued and repulsed by the idea of eating a pie with snails in it. Their eyes met and Frisk managed a weak smile, reaching up to pat Flowey's head. The gesture made the knot that had been forming in Flowey's stomache loosen somewhat.

Once getting to the checkout stand, Flowey spotted a large bag of Skittles on the impulse buy shelf and snagged it with his mouth, tossing it into the cart as sneakily as he possibly could. If Toriel had noticed, she managed to pretend she hadn't.

 

Frisk carried Flowey and the Skittles back upstairs to their room upon arriving home. As they closed the door, Flowey's dam broke.

"Frisk, why did you suddenly get all weird?!" he griped as Frisk began to replant him in his flowerbed. "We're just having a conversation and all of a sudden you look like someone stepped on your foot!"

Flinching again, Frisk looked down. "I'm sorry."

Feeling his face flush in irritation, Flowey didn't let up. "'Sorry'?! For what?!"

Plopping backward onto their bottom, Frisk hugged their knees. "I've been worrying about some things. I should have said something before letting it freak me out." they murmured.

Slowly, the fire of Flowey's temper began to sizzle down. "What're you worrying about?" he asked, tilting his head curiously.

"That you'll hibernate." Frisk said softly, their voice cracking a little at the last word. They quickly hid their face in their knees. "I dunno, I just... I don't want you to go away, even if 's just 'til Spring..."

Flowey paused, his line of sight flickering between the top of Frisk's head and where their face would be. "What...? That's all?" he managed after a few moments.

The ball Frisk had curled into tightened at that. "Yeah, I guess it's dumb..." they muttered, sounding defeated.

"N-No!" Flowey piped up, leaning towards them slowly. "Sorry, that wasn't- I mean..." He groaned in frustration. "I just was surprised that you were thinking about that kinda stuff."

"I didn't really want to, but," Frisk peeked over their knees, their eyes red and puffy, "You're my best friend -- I don't want you to go away."

Studying Frisk's expression for a moment, Flowey bumped his head against their wrist, eliciting a soft giggle from Frisk and encouraging them to pet his petals once again. "I'm... I'm not going away." he huffed, nuzzling his face against Frisk's palm. "As if I'd let you do new fun stuff without me, idiot."

Frisk propped their chin on their knees and smiled, their cheeks going quite pink. "You're right, that would suck." they replied.

Seeing their smile lifted a weight that had been settling on him since earlier, which made Flowey smile back. However, the moment was cut short when he let out a few coughs, turning away quickly. "Ugh..." he groaned, his stem squirming in discomfort. Frisk snapped to attention, brushing their thumb against his cheek.

"You're looking a little green..." they muttered.

"Ha ha, very funny." Flowey snorted, rolling his (green) eyes and sticking out his (green) tongue.

"I meant more than normal." Standing, Frisk went to the door. "I'll be back with Toriel."

Flowey stared up at them in panic. "What? Toriel? What for?!"

"Well, maybe you have a cold. She's a mom, she'd know that kind of stuff."

"A-A cold? Wait-" Flowey felt a shudder run up his stem as Frisk hurried out of the room and he coughed again, "But I don't wanna have a cold!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is more of a setup chapter than anything. So much setting up. Also, I wonder if snail pie is sweet or is more like a savory pie? These are the questions I ask myself all the time.


	17. Chapter 17

The next few days had been torture, a torture that Flowey barely remembered. Perhaps that was for the best -- for what Flowey was able to recall, it was about as awful as it had always been for him. Whatever had gone on during the nastiest bulk of his cold, Flowey decided maybe he didn't want to know about how pathetic he was.

Frisk, Toriel, and sans, however, remembered perfectly.

 

The first day Flowey's cold started to affect him, he had insisted on going to school. By the time he'd come home, he was curled up in his pot in Frisk's backpack, hacking and snuffling and being generally miserable. Toriel had taken it upon herself to call up their teacher to tell them Flowey would be staying home tomorrow, much to his dismay.

"Frisk can't go to school by themself." he griped, coughing as he popped his head up out of the human's bag. "I'm fine."

Toriel sighed as she hung up the phone after finishing her conversation with the teacher. "I know you hate being cooped up, Flowey, but you must understand that if you do not rest your cold will be prolonged."

The flower whined pathetically but dipped back into the bag as another coughing fit began. The corners of Frisk's mouth pulled down into a worried frown as they brought him upstairs, carefully pulling their friend out of the backpack and planting him in his bed, tucking a blanket around him.

"I told you I'm fine, Frisk..." Flowey contested, his voice a little hoarse from the strain. Despite his protests, however, he still leaned his face into Frisk's palm as they stroked his petals.

"Even so, you should probably take it easy tomorrow when I'm at school, okay?" they replied. "If you do, I'll bring you something nice." they added, their mouth turning up into a peppy smile.

Flowey felt his cheeks warm a bit despite the chills he'd been dealing with all day. "Promise?"

Nodding sharply, Frisk smoothed his top petals back and placed a kiss on the top of his head. "I promise." the human said softly. "But you have to keep up your end of the bargain: you have to take it easy and focus on getting better."

He pouted for a moment, then nodded as well. "Okay, I will."

Curling up against Frisk's abdomen as the human wrapped their arms around him, Flowey closed his eyes and tried to listen in on their heartbeat while trying to ignore his own somewhat ragged sounding breathing.

 

Morning came and bid in a new wave of dizziness and congestion for Flowey, much to his dismay. Yesterday wasn't the worst of it like he had hoped. Vague memories of past colds trickled into his mind as he felt his insides go cold -- of drippy snouts, teary eyes, pitiful whimpering, and bitter medicine that jumbled everything after that.

It got worse when Toriel came in to wake Frisk up for school, only to turn to Flowey with an apologetic look on her face.

"Flowey," she began, and the gentleness in her voice signaled to him that she was about to tell him something he really wasn't going to like, "I am going to have to leave the house for a while this morning. I have some important business to attend to, but I have called sans to come and keep an eye on you while I am out. I hope you will be on your best behaviour for him."

"What..." he groaned sleepily. Why did it have to be him?

"It will not be too long." Toriel assured him, patting his head. "You will be good, will you not?"

Flowey paused in thought before pulling away from her hand. "I guess..."

 

After being resituated into the sitting room, Toriel and Frisk left, leaving Flowey alone with sans and the list of detailed instructions left by Toriel. At least Toriel knows sans can't be trusted to know how to keep a pet rock alive let alone me, Flowey thought bitterly, eyeing the skeleton as he opened a bottle and checked the label before pouring some of the liquid contained into a shallow spoon.

"alright, time to take your cold medicine." sans announced, kneeling down beside Flowey who instinctively dove down into his blanket. "c'mon kid, don't have all day."

"I'll wait for Toriel to come home to take it." Flowey huffed, his voice muffled by the thick, warm fabric surrounding him.

sans rolled his eyes. "you'll be waiting a while, then. tori's got some class for her credential she has to get to after she takes frisk to school. you sure you wanna suffer until then?"

Flowey froze in place. That was an awfully long time, and he could already feel a pressure headache coming on. Gritting his teeth, he remembered his promises to Frisk and Toriel and slowly straightened up, turning to sans. "Fine." he spat, opening his mouth.

The medicine was just as bitter as he remembered. Despite his vow to behave, Flowey couldn't help but emit over-dramatic retching noises after swallowing the concoction. Much to his surprise, sans popped open a small cup of applesauce and dipped a clean spoon into it, brandishing it toward Flowey's face. "eat up." he urged by way of suggestion. Flowey stared at the applesauce incredulously, not sure if he should take anything else from sans. Knowing the lazy skeleton, it was probably years out of date. Then again, to rid himself of the aftertaste of the medicine, Flowey was tempted to risk it. It didn't even dawn on him that said applesauce was most likely from the fridge that Toriel kept so well stocked.

He soon gave in and ate, albeit with a sour scowl plastered on his face the entire time.

 

Children's cold medicine was mystical stuff for sure. For a good half hour Flowey held out, remaining grumpy and clammed up, but soon enough he began to show signs of loopiness. sans had put on a movie for the flower to watch, only for halfway in for the kid to start sniffling weakly. The skeleton glanced over at him, only to see Flowey burritoed in his blanket with a glassy look in his eyes as he stared at the television, barely holding back a sob.

"what's the matter?" was all sans could think to ask, not quite sure how to handle sudden emotional outbursts from a volatile flower with a cold.

"D'ya think they left me for good?" Flowey asked, hiccuping as he sunk deeper into his blanket. "Mom and Frisk..."

Pausing for a moment, sans shook his skull. "no way. both of them love you way too much to do something like that." he reassured Flowey, who looked up out from under his blanket to try and meet sans' eyes.

"You think so?" Flowey asked, eyes wide.

sans chuckled. "of course."

Flowey seemed enraptured by this idea for a moment before a thought hit him and he crumpled back down into his blanket. "But I can't love them back... I don't deserve them..."

"i wouldn't say that." sans replied, letting out a weak laugh. "sometimes you find it hard to care about others -- maybe even to the point you think you can't feel love -- but if that happens and one of your first instincts is to want better for others that love you, well, i think that's a type of love, don't you?"

It took a bit to sink in, but Flowey glanced up at sans again. "So... I really do love mom? And Frisk?" he asked, blushing a bit. "Does that mean I can smooch Frisk someday?"

sans froze up, doing his best not to laugh again. Despite his efforts to pretend he wasn't having some fun, however, his reply came out rather stiff and accented by very soft giggles. "sure, buddy. you smooch that human, but only when you're not sick anymore." Thankfully, Flowey didn't seem to notice, too wrapped up in his drug-induced daydreaming to even consider anything else.

 

By the time Toriel got home, Flowey was asleep and sans was channel-surfing. After thanking sans over and over for looking after him and putting Flowey to bed, Toriel returned downstairs and released a slow sigh. sans, who had yet to leave, glanced back over to her.

"busy day?"

"No more than is normal." Toriel said with a shake of her head. "Just stressful to have one child sick after another."

sans shrugged, eyes moving to the entrance of the stairwell. "i wouldn't worry too much about that one. if anything, he has too much energy."

Toriel laughed. "Yes, I suppose so. I am just a silly little lady who worries too much." she admitted.

"all that worrying will make your fur go grey." sans teased, and as Toriel chuckled once more he headed to the door. "catch you later, tori. hit me up for bridge night."

"Of course, of course."

 

Frisk came home looking rather down in the dumps, but did their best to quickly put on a smile as Toriel rounded the corner to greet them. "How is Flowey?" they asked as Toriel scooped them up into her arms.

"He's resting upstairs." she replied, looking back toward the stairs. "Let's go check up on Flowey together, shall we? I just finished making some soup, so we can bring him some."

Nodding, Frisk hugged Toriel before hopping out of her arms and hurrying upstairs. Toriel served out a bowl of soup and did her best to keep up without spilling.

As Frisk opened the door and made their way over to Flowey's bed, where a lump of blankets sat, they paused as they heard muffled sniffling. "Flowey?" Their voice seemed to catch Flowey's attention and he popped out from under the blankets, his eyes dewy.

"Frisk..." he croaked, then lurched toward them, Frisk scooting closer to hug him. "I missed you!" he cried out, tucking his face under Frisk's chin. Frisk noticed his voice was back in Asriel's register, which made them check behind them in the hopes that Toriel hadn't caught up with them yet.

Their hopes were quickly dashed as they spotted Toriel in the doorway, holding a bowl of soup. Her mouth was set in a firm, thin line and she took in a slow breath before placing a claw against her own lips as a sign for Frisk to keep quiet about her presence. Flowey didn't seem to notice for the moment, a wave of dizziness having overtaken him and causing him to sag against Frisk's shoulder. "You shouldn't have gotten up so fast -- you're still sick." Frisk gently chastised him, petting his sepals.

"I'm fiiiine..." Flowey whined, his voice shifting back to normal but the rest of him staying put.

Slowly, Toriel brought in the soup. "You should eat now." she said, smiling as Flowey looked over at her. "Be careful, it is still hot."

He nodded, chowing down gratefully as Frisk spoon fed him the soup. Once finished, Flowey slipped back off into dreamland, his petals lazily drooping over his face.

"Do y'think we can move his bed downstairs for now?" Frisk asked. "So we can be there when he wakes up again?"

Toriel nodded slowly. "I think that would be best."

With some maneuvering and a few rounds of replanting that Flowey miraculously slept through, the feat was managed and his bed was relocated to the sitting room. "He's really tired, huh?" Frisk asked, wrapping Flowey's blanket around him tightly.

"Fighting off a cold always tires you out." Toriel responded quietly, taking a seat on the couch situated nearby and patting the spot beside her. Frisk, taking the hint, hopped up onto the couch beside her. "How was school today, Frisk?"

Sighing, Frisk dipped their head down. "I missed Flowey all day. A few kids at recess asked where he was too." they replied sadly, then perked up. "Oh, but my class made him a get well soon card, and they all signed it." Pulling off their backpack and opening it up, Frisk fished out a construction paper card with stars and hearts scribbled all over it.

Toriel chuckled, looking the card over. "How sweet." she hummed, then placed a paw on Frisk's head and gently ruffled their hair. "I am proud of you for going to school today, even though Flowey could not come with you."

"Thanks, Toriel."

Standing up for a moment, Toriel leaned over and set the card upright by Flowey's bed before taking a seat again. "Frisk, did I ever tell you about my son?" she asked after a moment.

"No." they responded, looking down at their feet. "Some other monsters told me about him, though." Recalling their journey though New Home, Frisk clasped their hands together in their lap. "Prince Asriel, right?"

"Yes." Toriel nodded, closing her eyes. "Do you know what became of him?"

Frisk swallowed and nodded as well.

"It was a horrible loss, and I have avoided openly discussing both what happened that day and him for so long." the goat woman continued, placing a paw to her cheek. "I never stopped thinking about him, though. However," her eyes opened as she looked to Frisk, "Please do not ever think I want to take care of you to make up for lost time with Asriel. You are an interesting child -- a little odd, but charming and thoughtful -- and I love you for you. Do you understand, Frisk?"

Swallowing once again to relieve the newly formed lump in their throat, Frisk hugged onto Toriel's side, fingers grasping against her dress and a smile coming to their face once more as Toriel stroked their hair again. "Could you..." they managed to say after a bit, "Tell me about him...?"

Toriel's eyebrows rose, but she smiled as well and nodded.

 

The next morning, Flowey was surprised to wake up in some place that wasn't the bedroom. It took a moment, but he soon noticed Frisk sleeping on the couch, curled up in a comforter. He tried to call out to them, but his voice was barely there from all the coughing.

Thankfully, they roused soon enough and rubbed their eyes, smiling down at him. "Mornin'..." they greeted sleepily. "Feel any better?"

Flowey shook his head, opening his mouth and releasing a rusty-sounding groan.

"Ah, sore throat." Frisk translated, which provoked a sad nod from Flowey. "I'll get you some medicine, okay?"

Once the bottle was retrieved, Flowey whined and made a face, but still drank the spoonful of slop without any more fuss. He still had to focus on getting well after all. "I'll be here with you all day today." Frisk said by way of trying to cheer Flowey up. "So we can colour and watch movies and maybe even sit in the yard if the sun comes out today. Won't that be nice?"

Feeling his frown melt away, Flowey nodded, locking his eyes on Frisk's gratefully as they hurried to the kitchen and came back with a box of apple juice to wash the medicine down with.

 

It felt like his cold was winding down, or perhaps it was just the medicine addling his brain, but Flowey managed to actually be a little perky today. Frisk had put him in his overalls and had carted him around in their arms all day, even opting to set him in their lap when they sat down to watch Sleeping Beauty. They hummed along with the music and Flowey swayed to the melody with a faraway smile on his face. Afterward they opted to listen to some more music while they drew. Flowey found it a little more difficult to focus on one idea, so he doodled idly with colours he thought looked good together. After a while, Frisk looked over to his page and gasped softly.

"It looks like a sunset." they giggled, marveling at the oranges and pinks and purples.

"Oo fink sho?" Flowey asked, words muffled by the gold crayon in his mouth.

Frisk gave him a nod and a big smile. "It's so pretty!"

Blushing, Flowey smiled and carefully spat the crayon back out. "You want it when I'm done?"

"You'll give it to me?" they asked.

"Sure." he said with a grin.

Frisk wiggled excitedly and leaned over to plant a kiss on his cheek. "Thank you, Flowey."

Flowey felt his face go an even brighter red as he felt spiders skitter around his insides. "No problem."

 

That night, Flowey was surprised with snail pie for supper. Frisk even promised to try some, though their expression was still extremely unsure. Toriel even made easily one of Flowey's least objectionable vegetables, cauliflower, which Frisk seemed much more at ease with.

Much to Frisk's surprise, snail pie was more of an entree than a dessert, seasoned with butter and garlic. The texture was... indescribable, but for an occasional treat for the more snail-inclined members of their makeshift family Frisk was determined to endure. It was worth dealing with the chewiness to see how excited Flowey was.

 

Toriel moved Flowey's bed back upstairs that evening before bedtime so both children could sleep in their proper room. "Good night, you two." she cooed, kissing Frisk and Flowey both on the head before tucking them in and turning out the light. Flowey, however, had been storing energy that he hadn't been expending for the past couple days while he'd been cooped up, which was keeping him from going to bed just yet.

"Hey Frisk." he said, causing the human to roll over in bed to look at him. "You said you'd bring me something nice if I focused on getting better. Did you?"

Frisk smiled. "Uhm, well, I tried, but I can't promise how good it came out." they murmured, sitting up and pulling over their backpack. "I was working on it at school whenever I had free time." Flowey perked up curiously, then gasped when Frisk pulled out a drawing of his photoshop form. "I don't know if I got all the details right, but..."

"It's awesome!" Flowey looked at the wall by his bed and then looked back to Frisk. "Put it up right here!"

Frisk fidgeted bashfully. "Okay." they nodded, cracking out the tape and getting to it.

Afterward, both kids decided it was time to settle in. Flowey looked from the drawing of his photoshop form on his wall to the "sunset" picture Frisk had taped up on their side of the room, his gaze trailing back down to Frisk before closing his eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Geez this chapter took forever. @u@ Worth it.


	18. Chapter 18

With the temperature outside settling into a consistent cooling trend, it had become less and less common for Frisk and Flowey to spend time outside exploring, instead opting to spend more time indoors either drawing, reading, or watching movies when not in school. The lull in activity ate at Flowey more than he hoped he was letting on. Though the fear of catching cold and being put out of commission once again was a lingering possibility, he still wanted to find some ease for his cabin fever.

Luckily, though his time with it was limited, the internet had many uses.

"Frisk!" he squawked, causing his companion to jump and look up from their drawing. Flowey dropped the stylus he'd had clamped in his mouth and motioned to the phone in front of him. "There's an aquarium a few towns over! Can we go?"

Taking a moment to process this information, Frisk propped their chin in their palm. "Oh yeah, I think I remember going there once. It's a little far to take the bus alone, but maybe we can ask Toriel to take us." They smiled. "It sounds like a lot of fun."

Flowey perked up proudly, his stem jutting out by way of puffing out his chest. "It does, doesn't it? I figured we should go out and do something at some point." He smirked as he continued. "After all, it'd be awful for me to get bored again." he said, his tone growing ominous as he pulled a creepy, hollow-eyed face that ripped a squeak and a giggle from the human. Part of him was a little miffed he couldn't spook Frisk with that face any more, but then another part of him took some comfort in seeing the interactions between the two of them change.

"I wonder how many books on fish the Underground had..." Frisk murmured thoughtfully, which brought Flowey's attention back outward.

"Well," he paused, thinking back, "Most of the books that came through the dump were unreadable by the time they reached us, so the few we did get were kinda passed around a lot. I don't think there were too many books on fish, so most of what I know about them is what I know about monsters that have fish-like traits."

Frisk smiled more. "Then this'll be another new experience, hm?"

Flowey looked back down to the phone thoughtfully. "I guess." he said, stem wiggling a little.

"We'll have to look at everything we can, then." Frisk said, picking Flowey up. "Let's go see if Toriel wouldn't mind taking us." Smiling, Flowey nodded in agreement, swaying to and fro slowly as Frisk scampered into the kitchen. "Toriel? We wanna ask you something."

Toriel blinked and closed a book she had propped open on the counter, removing her reading glasses as she looked back to the two children. "Yes, what is it?" she asked, only just holding back a chuckle upon seeing the two wide grins on their chubby faces.

"Can we go to the aquarium today?" Frisk asked. "It's, uhm," they pulled out the phone to check the address, "About twenty minutes away."

"So if we go now, we'll have time to see everything and be back in time for supper!" Flowey added.

The boss monster chuckled at the enthusiasm radiating up at her. "If you both want to go to the aquarium, I do not see any any issue. Go upstairs and bundle up, then we will make our way over."

Both children looked to the other with huge smiles and wild giggling, then disappeared up to the second floor. Toriel laughed again, glancing to the clock on the wall. Almost half past three, which meant they could certainly see everything before the aquarium closed, but it was likely they wouldn't make it home before suppertime as Flowey had estimated. Perhaps they could find a restaurant... Admittedly, Toriel hadn't considered going out for supper at any point before this. She rather enjoyed cooking, so it had just never crossed her mind. Thankfully the exchange rate for gold coins was very much in the monsters' favour, but she was still unsure about the prospect of going to a restaurant.

She had little time to dwell, however, as Frisk scrambled down the stairs with a potted Flowey, who was nearly drowning in a thick knitted scarf, in their arms and back to her side.

 

The aquarium wasn't too busy, which was a relief. Despite getting somewhat used to going to school and being around his classmates, Flowey was still anxious in crowds of humans. Toriel was thankful for Alphys taking the time to teach her how to use her new phone's camera as they entered and Frisk and Flowey's faces lit up.

"They're so pretty." Frisk whispered as the two of them pressed their faces up against the jellyfish tank. The blacklight underneath illuminated the jellies in an otherworldly glow as they drifted along behind the glass. Flowey managed to tear his eyes away from the tank to read the informational plaque posted nearby. As he began to spout off facts to Frisk, Toriel snapped a picture of them with her phone, something neither seemed to notice. It brought a smile to her face to see her children looking so excited.

Despite his early resilience, Flowey soon enough forgot to keep up on reading all the information available, getting more and more enthralled by just looking at the different marine life. His enthusiasm was infectious enough to spread to Frisk and Toriel, which worked to his advantage when his voice slipped into Asriel's register a few times and went unnoticed.

"Flowey, wanna touch a sea star?" Frisk asked, carrying him over to one of the petting pools. Flowey nodded, his eyes wide as he scanned the water for whatever a 'sea star' could possibly be. Reaching their hand in, Frisk petted a bright red starfish, grinning to Flowey encouragingly.

After a brief pause, Flowey loosed a root from the potting soil and carefully reached in to pat the creature, laughing softly at the sensation. "The water's cold!" he exclaimed as Frisk took him to the hand-washing station to rinse the salt water off his root. Toriel watched them, chuckling before looking down at her phone to flip through all the pictures she'd taken, stopping only when she noticed the time.

"Frisk, Flowey, we need to leave soon." she said as the children returned to her side. "It is getting late." There was a moment of griping before Frisk's stomache growled and both children sheepishly admitted they were hungry.

Upon exiting the aquarium, Frisk and Flowey chattered on about all the neat things they'd seen while Toriel took a cursory look at the possible choices in restaurants in the nearby area. There was a diner nearby that seemed like the easiest choice, so she steered the children in it's direction. Once the three of them entered, however, Toriel became quite aware that all eyes were on her. They were seated and the waitress wordlessly handed a menu to Frisk and Toriel, her eyes darting between Toriel and Flowey briefly before walking away. Neither child seemed to notice, too entrenched in tyring to decide what to order as Frisk turned the pages of the menu for Flowey to look through. Trying to shake off her feeling of unease, Toriel did the same.

After quite the wait, a different waitress approached, this one a little friendlier. She took their orders -- both drinks and food, as they'd all had plenty of time to decide -- and then locked her eyes on Frisk. "Hey, you're the kid that freed all the monsters from under Mt Ebott, right?" she asked, causing Frisk to look up at her.

"Mmn, uhuh, that's me." Frisk replied, hugging Flowey's pot.

"I thought I recognized your face from the news." the waitress said, though her expression made it difficult to tell whether or not her surprise at seeing Frisk was pleasant or not. "Anyway, I'll put your order in." she finished, walking off toward the kitchen.

Frisk seemed conflicted by the recognition and hugged onto Flowey tighter, who looked quite apprehensive as well. However, it was more likely his reasoning more had to do with him realizing just how many humans were around. Sensing the tension, Toriel reached over and patted both their heads and smiled warmly, which eased some of the children's anxiety.

Though the stares didn't subside through their meal, all three members of their cobbled together family did their best not to notice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for this chapter taking a while -- lots of real life stuff has been going on and I haven't been in a very good headspace, which makes coming up with motivation to write cute stuff a bit hard. But I am DETERMINED to persevere! c:


	19. Chapter 19

Frisk was terrible when it came to working with their hands, Flowey had come to realize. They were perfectly capable when it came to basic tasks, but when some attention to detail was needed in things like measuring ingredients while cooking or threading a needle for Toriel so she could patch up a hole in a shirt, Frisk performed horribly.

Despite his constant assurance that Frisk and Chara were entirely different people, a part of Flowey remained surprised and somewhat disappointed when Frisk showed themself to be Chara's opposite. He'd had to keep himself from being shocked that Frisk couldn't knit or when their colouring got sloppy or even when they would hurriedly wipe their nose on their sleeve, much to Toriel's dismay. Frisk was sloppy, disorganized, and stocky in stature, unlike the willowy, meticulous Chara.

However, more than he was upset by their differences, Flowey was bothered that he was so upset in the first place. He was angry that he kept expecting Frisk to be like Chara in any way, and each time he found himself disappointed in their differences he found himself struck by painful guilt for thinking such things shortly after.

When Frisk had first come to the Underground, he had been so sure they were Chara...

"Flowey?"

Blinking, Flowey looked up from his drawing pad to see Frisk had scooted closer and was eyeing him worriedly. He must have spaced out...

"What is it, Frisk?" he asked, his eyes falling back down to the picture he'd been drawing. Wide eyes and a smile peered back at him, framed by medium brown hair and rosy cheeks. It was a horrible portrait, to be sure, but Flowey had grown to accept that his lack of hands would stunt his drawing ability until he got more used to drawing with a crayon in his mouth.

Frisk's gaze flicked from the paper back to him quickly. "Are you feeling okay?" they asked, their expression unreadable no matter how hard Flowey tried to decipher it.

The flower nodded. "Yeah, just kinda... I dunno." he trailed off, curling in on himself a little.

"You wanna come to the store with me?"

Flowey nodded again, and Frisk hurried off to get his scarf, which had become standard now that it was cold all day, even when the sun was up. As they returned and began to bundle Flowey up, the flower got to thinking as to why suddenly Frisk wanted to go out. They hadn't mentioned wanting to grab anything from the store earlier, had they?

After calling to Toriel saying that the two of them were going to walk around for a bit, Frisk carried Flowey out onto the sidewalk, heading toward town.

It was quiet for a few moments before Frisk looked down at Flowey. "Wanna talk?" they asked.

Flowey blinked in surprise. "About what?" he responded, trying to play dumb for the time being. If he could avoid this conversation for now, perhaps he could find a more tactful way to bring the Chara subject up with Frisk later. However, the human didn't let up.

"You know what, Flowey." they huffed. "I know you thought I was Chara when I first fell, and I know they were your best friend. You can talk about them to me, you know..." they smiled awkwardly. "I don't mind. To be honest, I'm actually a little curious."

His line of sight dropped to the pavement below them. "I'm not sure what else there is to say."

"It's not like you've stopped thinking about them..."

Flowey felt his mouth go dry. "It's not like I want to think about them."

"But you still do." Frisk hugged his pot closer. "I don't mind you talking to me about these things, if you need to."

"I..." Flowey leaned into the hug instinctively, despite his emotions clashing inside of him. "I guess, but not here."

"Where?"

Flowey paused again, then turned to look up at Frisk. "You interested in a little hike?"

 

The trek up to Mount Ebott was surprisingly short, but then Flowey figured Frisk knew the trail by heart at this point. He was surprised when Frisk took him around the back and stopped at the chasm where they'd fallen through. Despite knowing what was down there, Flowey still had to resist the urge to crane his head to try and see what could be made out of the Ruins from this height. Frisk pulled out two juice boxes from their backpack and Flowey felt momentarily impressed by their foresight, smiling a bit in gratitude when Frisk stuck the straw into the top of his and set it in his pot. "Spill." the kid said, taking a seat on the cave floor between a few thick vines.

"Heh, not too sure how to start..." he murmured, fidgeting.

"Well, I can start by saying I watched -- well, listened to -- your videos you made with them." Frisk said by way of playful teasing. "I thought your prank was kinda funny."

Flowey scowled. "That's Asriel, not me. I have way better pranks." he replied matter-of-factly. Repressing the urge to roll their eyes, Frisk nodded along. "And as for the tapes themselves, uh..." Flowey continued, swallowing hard. "To be honest, I never re-watched them. I know Alphys had them, but I hoped she just assumed it was some game and left it at that."

"It didn't sound like a game." Frisk responded quietly. "You... Asriel sounded pretty upset in the last couple tapes."

The flower's insides twisted at the memory. Trying to weakly talk Chara out of their plan despite recognizing that determined look in their eyes, Chara setting him on the defensive upon mentioning that he was crying again, eventually persuading him to go along with his role despite every instinct screaming at him to sabotage them in some way -- to tell mom or dad or someone -- and eventually breaking down at their bedside as they lay there with the colour fading from their cheeks and a tired but excited grin.

'Aren't you happy, Asriel? We are going to see the surface together, and then we will take the surface back from the humans.'

His throat felt like it was closing up.

'Just six more and we will keep monsters safe forever.'

Each second made him want to go back in time and put his foot down for once, but he knew Chara would always find some way to get him to cooperate. They were always so persuasive that way.

'Remember to do everything, just as we discussed.'

He responded, but the words just seemed to tumble out in a meaningless jumble. Chara seemed to get some clarity from it and giggled softly, their breathing raspy.

'Right, you are a great partner. Asriel... we'll be together forever, won't we...?'

Flowey blinked as Frisk brushed one of his petals out of his face gently, looking up at them. "You really aren't anything like them, you know." he blurted out.

Frisk rose their eyebrows. "So Asriel said, despite sharing our amazing taste in stripes."

Laughing, Flowey bumped his head against Frisk's chest. "Yeah, you have that much in common, but..." his smile shrunk a bit. "They were probably the smartest kid I've ever met, and always talked like they just... knew better, y'know? And they picked up new skills and stuff so fast, and I could never keep up. And, I mean, you two don't even look the same -- Chara was tall with huge eyes and hair that was combed perfectly all the time. It flipped out a bit at the ends and they hated it but I always thought it looked nice..." he chuckled.

"Why did you think I was Chara when I first showed up, then?" Frisk asked, continuing to play with his petals.

It took a moment, but Flowey continued. "You had that look in your eyes when I first saw you." he said softly. "Like something was wrong that you wanted to fix. And I was so sure that Chara would be mad about... what happened that when you started," he bit his bottom lip, "When you started killing everyone, I almost kind of expected it."

Frisk flinched a bit, causing Flowey to stop again. "Mm, sorry." they murmured. "I... try not to think about my behaviour when I first got here."

Flowey gave them a wry look. "Why did you start off guns blazing, huh? I know I'm scary, but I couldn't have rattled you that badly at the start..."

"It's complicated."

Snorting, Flowey took an exaggeratedly loud slurp from his juice box. "I'm here spilling my guts and you can't offer me anything in return?"

"Let me save that for another time." Frisk requested with a weak grin. "Anything else you wanna know?"

"Weeeell, there is one thing that has been kinda gnawing at me, something Asriel asked you before." he replied. "And it helps that your comfort matters less to me than it did to Asriel, so I can ask you to tell me why you climbed Mount Ebott in the first place."

Frisk paused, causing Flowey to pipe up again. "You say 'ask you anything' and you don't answer anyth--"

"I came here to die."

Their voice barely audible but somehow Flowey picked it up like the words had been spoken into a megaphone and he immediately felt his rambunctiousness leave him. "Ha... ha..." he coughed out weakly. "What?"

"My foster mom passed away that day. She had cancer." Frisk muttered, readjusting themself. "I didn't want to go back into the foster care system, so instead I ran off. I didn't know what I was gonna do or where I could go, and nothing seemed like it would ever get better for me, so when I found this place," they motioned to the cavern, "And saw the hole in the ground, I figured this was the best place to do it before I chickened out. I figured if the fall didn't kill me, the monsters that supposedly lived under the mountain would."

His head was pounding but Flowey still tried to respond. "So... why did you kill them...?" he asked, the words tumbling out as he briefly forgot Frisk's previous request.

Frisk went silent again, patting Flowey's head. "Don't worry about it. It's not going to happen again, and I decided back then I could do something better with myself than disappear."

Flowey closed his eyes, focusing on feel of Frisk's hand and trying to calm down. He remembered that surge of fear he felt as he followed Frisk through New Home, chattering on about how fun it would be to get to the surface after killing everyone only to realize that he might not be so much of an exception due to his history with Chara. He remembered running to find Asgore, waiting for them to follow but...

... But nobody came.

Soon, he found himself back in the Ruins, Frisk curled up and sobbing into the flowers that covered the ground beneath them. Something was wrong, why were they crying? Chara never cried. This was all wrong.

The memories began to recede, a calm setting in as Flowey nuzzled Frisk's hand. They were here now, so that's all that mattered in the end, right? "I'm glad you decided to stay." he said quietly.

"I am too." Frisk replied, smiling a bit again. Reopening his eyes, Flowey looked up at Frisk before his line of sight wandered back down to the hand they'd placed beside his cheek. He released a slow sigh and bumped his face into their palm, kissing the inside of their hand softly and pulling a quiet giggle from the human.

All was quiet for a moment before Flowey shrunk down into his scarf. "It's getting colder, let's go home." Flowey huffed, feeling his face heat up again.

"Okay, Flowey."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dipped into a bit of angst, but the best clean up for that is more fluff.


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew! I'm glad to finally be back to this fic! Thank you all for waiting so patiently. ;u;

"Alphys' apartment is all set up?"

Flowey poked his head out of Frisk's schoolbag at that, curiously leaning his head toward the phone they had pressed to their ear. Neither of the two had heard much from Alphys since Flowey had come to the surface -- from what Undyne had said, she was scrambling to find employment as well as move the more important machinery in her lab up to the surface.

Undyne's voice rang in loud and clear from the speaker. "Yeah, and she wanted to celebrate with an anime night tonight! She was gonna call you about it yesterday, but you know how Alphy gets with phones, so I stepped in to do it for her."

A small smile appeared on Frisk's face and Flowey tried to refrain from rolling his eyes. "Sounds fun." they replied. "What time?"

 

After details were exchanged and permission obtained from the two's goatly guardian, Frisk began to hurry toward Gaskey's downtown area. "It'll be nice to see her again." they said after a while, looking back at the askew flap of their backpack where Flowey had receded once more.

Vague grumbling was the response. "Sure, real nice." was the only clear words Frisk got out of their friend's quiet rant.

"Flowey," they began, their tone placating, "I know Alphys isn't your favourite monster, but I think having some fun together with her might be what you two need to get to talk things out..."

Popping out out Frisk's bag, Flowey laughed. "And what if I don't wanna talk things out, huh? She's why I'm a flower, so I think I'm fine with hating her." he sneered.

Frisk's shoulders fell a bit. "Still, is hating her gonna make you any happier?"

"It's not about being happy or not." Flowey muttered, ducking back down into the bag once more. "Just because you're okay with making friends with the people who hurt you doesn't mean I am." Pouting, he poked at Frisk's phone idly. Frisk's lack of a response meant he was alone with his thoughts for now, though he wasn't sure if he wanted that. Admittedly, he'd become a little reliant on Frisk talking sense into him when his temper flared up and was half hoping that they would come back with some inspirational friendship speech. There were a lot of those in anime, so maybe Frisk was waiting to watch some of it to refill the well that they tapped into for their uplifting pep-talks.

The fact that Flowey still didn't feel like he deserved Frisk's forgiveness after all this time didn't help his opinion on this subject either.

 

"Welcome to my new apartment, Frisk!" Alphys greeted the human child as Undyne let them in.

Smiling, Frisk sat their bag down, carefully pulling Flowey out. "Looks cool." they said, taking a moment to look around. There were quite a few screens on the walls, linked to various computers and systems. Even Flowey had to silently admit to himself he was mildly impressed. This place was dripping in tech, probably moreso than the rest of this rural mountain town combined.

The feeling faded quickly, however, as Alphys and Flowey caught each other's eyes briefly. The reptilian monster seemed to dull in colour somewhat as she saw him, quickly averting her gaze as Flowey scowled in her direction.

Undyne cut in with miraculous timing, brandishing a plethora of DVDs. "Let's watch anime, you nerds!" she demanded. "Alphys and I were just about to start this one before we came to the surface, so we're all gonna get to start it together!"

As he felt his energy and willingness to continue this excursion drain, Flowey looked to Frisk, who offered an encouraging glance and hugged him close. "Sounds good." the human replied for the both of them as Flowey sank against their chest.

 

Neither child were quite sure what was going on. It seemed like a magical girl show, but there was a lot more yelling than there was in Sailor Moon. Also something to do with clothes...? There were a couple times Frisk felt like they shouldn't be watching this, but Flowey seemed transfixed by the action scenes so they kept quiet. Alphys also didn't seem to have known what she was getting into, but fell into a similar pattern as Frisk when it came to Undyne. The fish monster was having the time of her life, whooping and hollering at the screen in front of them as the anime raged on in all it's insane glory.

Eventually the time to take a break to refill on snacks came and Frisk excused themselves to the restroom. Setting Flowey on the counter, Frisk grabbed a glass of water from the faucet.

"That show is weird but really fun." they said, looking to Flowey. "But maybe we won't tell Toriel about it."

Flowey giggled weakly. "Yeah." he responded, drowsiness washing over him. "What... what time is it?"

Checking their phone, Frisk read out, "Seven o'clock. I'll ask Undyne to bring us home."

The flower drooped a little, petals folding inward. "Geez, I didn't even notice til now..."

"Having too much fun?"

Flowey shot Frisk an unimpressed look. "I guess." he spat. "But that doesn't mean I forgive Alphys any more than I did before."

Frisk nodded. "I know." They took a seat on the closed toilet lid. "It'd be great if it was easy like that, but I know you have a lot of stuff on your plate already. I won't expect you to forgive Alphys right away." Smiling weakly again, the human patted their friend's head gently. "Sorry for dragging you out."

Shaking his head, Flowey looked back to them. "Tonight was fun. Even if I don't like Alphys, I'll, ugh," he scrunched up his face melodramatically, "TRY to focus on the anime rather than her so you can see ALL your dumb friends."

Their smile brightened a bit as Frisk leaned over and kissed one of Flowey's petals. "You're so cool, y'know that?" they giggled, picking up Flowey's pot again.

Sputtering briefly in response, Flowey tried to will the colour out of his cheeks. "Of course I'm cool, Frisk! Why would I be anything else?!" he exclaimed perhaps a bit too loudly.

"That's true." Frisk hummed, patting his head again. "Now let's go home."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note about my absence: I'm sorry I took so long to return to this. I really do love working on this fic, but I've fallen out of love really hard with the Undertale fandom and, between my technological issues and two car accidents, it's been hard to think continuing this fic is worth it anymore.
> 
> I will be continuing because, as much as I don't like a lot of the stuff that goes on in the fandom, I want to provide something positive that people can enjoy rather than give into negativity.
> 
> It'll be kind of a wonky update schedule (real life is hectic and I have so little energy nowadays), but know that I'll always be back eventually. This fic ain't over til I say it is! :D


	21. Chapter 21

He was himself again. No... he was Asriel again. Well, sort of. The same dull mixture of anger and anxiety swirled inside him like a thick fog, but he had hands at least. Flexing his fingers as he held them in front of his face, Flowey slowly pressed the pink paw pads to his eyelids. The sensation was floaty at best -- this was all just a dream after all.

Soon, he became aware of someone behind him. Instinctively Flowey flinched, tucking his arms inward and looking over his shoulder, but eased when he saw Frisk.

"What are you doing here?" was all he could think to ask, his eyes widening as he heard not Asriel's voice but his own higher register speak.

Frisk didn't respond, their expression blank. It was a reaction Flowey had gotten used to from them back in the Underground.

Flowey had only just begun to wonder if this dream version of Frisk would even react at all when they reached up and patted the top of his head, briefly flattening the tuft of fur that always stuck up.

"Hey, wussat for...?" he griped despite the smile tugging at his lips.

Likewise, Frisk's face broke into a big grin. "You're so cool."

 

Daylight streaming in through the window roused Flowey from dreamland. Uncurling and stretching out from underneath the blanket draped over his flowerbed, he looked up at the glow in the dark stars on his wall that had since lost their glow overnight.

What was that dream anyway? He would take it over another nightmare, but Flowey had gotten used to nightmares. Nice dreams were new and maybe even a little scary in their own right. He couldn't remember the last time he'd had a dream where nothing bad happened...

He looked towards Frisk's bed, leaning over and whispering, "Frisk, you up yet?" It was about seven in the morning and Frisk slept like a log, so the answer was obviously no. However, Flowey still waited for a moment to give Frisk a chance to reply before ducking down under his blanket again to take a moment to process his dream.

 

"I think Miss Beaumont would be happy to hear about you hanging out with Alphys." Frisk mentioned as they made their way toward the automatic doors, Flowey's pot clenched in their hands.

Flowey looked up at them quizzically. He hadn't struck up much conversation with Frisk today, admittedly due in some part to the dream he had, so if this was some attempt on Frisk's part he appreciated it. "Really? Any reason why?"

Frisk shrugged. "She likes knowing stuff like that." they responded, which was a much more closed answer than Flowey would have liked. "You never talk about your time talking with her much so I dunno what kind of homework she gives you, but she always liked hearing that kind of thing from me, so..."

At that last bit, Flowey's mouth tightened to a thin line. It was weird to think that Frisk ever needed conflict management. Then again, he had only known them for a little over a month now, though it felt like so much longer.

And it made a little sense, considering Frisk's first run through the Underground.

He closed his eyes and shook his head. It was no use thinking about that: Frisk had shown time and time again that it wasn't in their nature to do harm. Part of Flowey wanted to ask about what had happened, have Frisk actually explain themselves for once, but an increasingly louder part reminded him of Frisk's reaction the last time he'd brought it up -- that pushing buttons wouldn't get him any desired results for the time being. He couldn't just reset if he ended up upsetting Frisk like he could any time he pressed someone in the Underground too far.

Honestly, he didn't know why the idea of making Frisk sad was so repulsive to him. He'd killed them plenty of times before, after all, so why did it suddenly matter to him now? Then again, why did Frisk complimenting him as they had before make him feel so good as well...?

"We're here." Frisk's voice brought Flowey out of his frustrated musings and turned his attention to Miss Beaumont's office door. "Remember to show her your drawings, too."

"Yeah, yeah..." Flowey nodded his head dismissively. "You'll be here when I get out, right?"

Frisk gave Flowey a thumbs up before escorting him in.

 

The session had gone well and things were winding down by the time Flowey handed off his drawing journal to Miss Beaumont, who began to flip through it with a small smile.

"You're a talented artist." she said, her eyes scanning over a picture.

Flowey sniffed non-committally. "I was better when I had hands."

Miss Beaumont laughed, turning the page. "Well, you've managed to adapt without them fairly well. You seem to adapt well to most things when you put your mind to it."

Hearing that, Flowey went quiet, slinking down into his pot. "Doesn't feel like it."

His therapist glanced back toward him. "You don't think so?"

His mouth pressed into a line as Flowey remembered his dream again. "It feels like I get knocked off my guard by everything. All this new stuff... it's weird. I'm not sure if I like it." He squeezed his eyes shut. "I thought new experiences would make me happy, and sometimes they do, but then Frisk does something I don't expect and I have to scramble to keep up..."

A pause passed between them and Miss Beaumont glanced back down at the drawing on the next page. A picture Flowey drew of Frisk and himself together, which was the only picture he'd drawn of himself where he was smiling.

"Some things take longer to get used to." she replied finally, closing the journal. "Does Frisk know about your... discomfort?"

Flowey shook his head.

"Perhaps bringing it up and describing what you feel to them will help." Miss Beaumont suggested. "Describing your emotions to someone close to a friend might do a lot to help not only your feelings on the matter but also help strengthen your friendship."

His eyes widened as Flowey considered this. Miss Beaumont seemed pretty sure about this. Would describing what Frisk made him feel to Frisk themselves work?

It seemed worth a shot, but perhaps he needed to practice what to say first...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was considering writing a Thanksgiving chapter, but I don't have much muse for writing about that holiday in particular. So enjoy the start of something fun instead. c:


	22. Chapter 22

His options were limited. Flowey knew he would rather hurl himself into the core than ask sans or Alphys for advice on anything, and Undyne had the less than stellar track record of needing help from a child she'd just met when it came to expressing her feelings to other people. Not that this was in any way the same, though.

Papyrus was another story. Though he was obviously the best choice to vent to, Flowey knew that his advice would be ineffectual at best and utterly backwards at worst. He'd farmed Papyrus for answers and reactions so much in past runs that Flowey was sure of this fact. Plus, this was such a conflicted feeling, and Papyrus didn't DO emotional conflict. The closest comparison Papyrus had dealt with was when he tried and failed to romance Frisk. NOT THAT THIS WAS ANYTHING AT ALL LIKE THAT, THOUGH.

Any other consideration was quickly shot down in his mind, leaving Flowey with only Toriel and Asgore as likely candidates to even consider discussing the matter with. In the end, Asgore felt like the best candidate, since he felt Toriel was more likely to ask prying follow-up questions.

It was all a matter of getting some time away from Frisk with Asgore in the room.

 

On their next visit to Asgore's house, Flowey tore through his assigned study for the day before Frisk got the chance to catch up. He hoped the human didn't find this fishy, but they seemed too invested in parsing their way through the latest ecology chapter to question it.

The next step was getting Asgore's attention. Tearing a page of paper out of his notebook with his teeth, Flowey fumbled it into a crumpled ball and catapulted at the boss monster seated nearby, a book perched in his lap. The wad of paper bounced off his knee, which caused Asgore to look toward the kids.

"I'm done." Flowey said, puffing himself up proudly. "I wanna sit outside for a bit."

It must have struck Asgore as odd, Flowey figured, for him to ask to be away from Frisk. Truthfully, part of him felt awkward asking for such a thing -- he was used to being within earshot of Frisk at all times. However, Asgore slowly rose and walked over. "I suppose a bit of fresh air would be nice." the king rumbled with a small smile. "Frisk, once you finish, you're welcome to come join us." Frisk nodded silently as they continued their work, screwing up their face into a determined expression as they turned a page. Asgore smiled a little more before picking up Flowey's pot carefully and making his way out the back door.

Chilly air hit Flowey like a truck but he did his best to look unperturbed by it. Right, wintertime was creeping up quickly... The very idea was exhausting. Shaking his head to regain his wits, Flowey watched Asgore close the door again before speaking up. "Hey, I have a question for you."

"Oh?" Asgore's eyebrows rose as he took a seat on a slightly battered looking lawn chair and sat Flowey on the metal framed table beside him. "I will do my best to answer, then."

Flowey swallowed hard before continuing. "H-How d'ya tell someone that the stuff they do makes you feel weird? Like you don't know how to react but, uh... you kinda wanna keep up with them but aren't sure you can?"

Asgore stroked his beard in thought. "Could you give me an example of what you mean exactly?"

Pouting somewhat, Flowey scrambled to compose himself. "Just as an example, let's say Frisk is, um, b-being stupid or--" he cut himself off, noticing Asgore's surprised expression, "I mean, they're just weirdly nice and... and patient and cuddly, and I'm not sure how to handle it..." His eyes widened as he realized what he'd said. "Just as a 'what if'!"

"Ahh, I see." Asgore nodded, seemingly accepting that this scenario was merely hypothetical despite the knowing glint in his eye.

The flower squirmed in his pot. "What should I do or say to Frisk, if that was the case?"

There was a pause as Asgore stroked his beard again, formulating an answer. "Well, Flowey," he finally said, "Your problem is actually fairly common."

Flowey straightened up in surprise. "Really?" he asked, genuinely intrigued now.

The king nodded. "However, there are many different methods, and depending on your approach some may work and some won't."

"What do you think will work for me?" Flowey questioned, his tone straining somewhat. He needed a resolution to this conundrum!

Smiling assuredly, Asgore leaned in to tell Flowey, as if the information he was about to divulge was of the utmost importance. "Well, if we were dealing with someone like Frisk, your best bet would be to plan something extremely nice for them. Something that would combine all the kindness they've shown you, plus more."

A wave of realization washed over Flowey. Of course! What a perfectly devious plan. A familiar rush of admiration for his father rose within his small plant body as Flowey grinned. It would be the perfect way to throw Frisk off like he'd been thrown off so many times, and then they'd understand his feelings being subjected to all this kindness.

It would take a while to pull together, but the result would be so worth it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The idea of Asriel looking up to his dad fills me with DETERMINATION.

**Author's Note:**

> I started writing this on a whim. I'm not much of a writer, but I have headcanons I wanna throw out into the world, so bear with me here. I promise to make up for my lack of talent with words with cute mental images.


End file.
